By Mike Sherman
We have addressed this subject in the past, but perhaps without a greater urgency to the dangers of sleeping in your RV while parked on the shoulder of the roadway. We advocate getting off the road if you become disabled, even if it requires just a short tow. A shopping center parking lot or rest stop area could save your life. Even though the circumstances reported below are different (as revealed upon further research after the original news report and my initial response to it), the news article below drives that point home in a very sad way.
SUTTER COUNTY, Calif. (KCRA) — May 5, 2019 — Three people were killed and an 11-year-old girl was hospitalized after a driver plowed into a trailer where a family was sleeping along Highway 113 near Knights Landing on Saturday night, the California Highway Patrol said. (See follow-up below.)
Ismael Huazo-Jardinez, 33, of Yuba City, is facing charges of vehicular manslaughter and felony driving under the influence, the CHP said.
Huazo-Jardinez was driving a Chevrolet Avalanche “at a high rate of speed” when he failed to negotiate a curve on Highway 113, north of Jennings Court, just before 10 p.m. His truck left the road and crashed into the trailer that held the sleeping family, the CHP said.
A 38-year-old man, a 34-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy were killed. The 11-year-old girl was flown to UC Davis Medical Center with major injuries. Huazo-Jardinez was treated for moderate injuries before being booked into the Sutter County Jail. No other details were released.
——
The alleged drunk driver likely has no insurance, and it looks like an 11-year-old girl is left without her parents and younger brother. This tragedy could have easily been avoided because it does not appear the RV was disabled. Dad was probably just tired and needed some sleep. The area is rural in nature, so he probably felt his family would be safe on the shoulder.
It also points out the danger of remaining in an RV if you encounter a breakdown. If you are in a motorhome, you can easily be injured or killed if someone runs into your rig. They are, after all, made with a lot of plywood! If you have a tow vehicle, that is where you should probably remain for other safety reasons I have mentioned, such as an assault.
So what avenue does one take? Stay farther away from the RV in case it gets hit by a drunk driver, or remain inside to avoid other potential problems? Have you ever experienced a breakdown on a lonely stretch of highway in the middle of the night?
We did – several years ago while traveling across Interstate 80 in the Nevada desert, out in the middle of nowhere at 1:00 o’clock in the morning. Our Class A motorhome experienced a blown rear tire (inside dual). Fortunately, we had cell service – which really surprised me, considering our location. The shoulder was just wide enough for us to get out of the lane of traffic. I placed orange cones on the shoulder and contacted ERS. I gave them our mile marker location and explained the problem. The operator asked if we were in a safe position. I said “No, not really”. She asked if I wanted the Nevada Highway Patrol to respond. I said yes, if they weren’t too busy. An officer showed up within 30 minutes and remained on site until the tire service company arrived about an hour later.
We were fortunate to have the officer’s patrol car parked at the rear of the RV. I had my family wait outside, up the side of the dirt bank. The tire service was timely considering our location. Overall, the experience was not as bad as it could have been.
FOLLOW-UP: In doing a little more research for this week’s article, I discovered the “trailer” in this instance was actually a farm worker’s home and not a recreational vehicle. Comments by the “landlord’ alerted me to the lack of details in the original story. The home was, in fact, set well off the roadway shoulder, but still close enough for an out-of-control car to make contact. However, I decided to run with the story based on the subject matter for a safety warning.
It did offer up the opportunity to advocate one should always strive to find a safe place to park. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? How was it ultimately resolved?
Note: We know what we discuss in this column may be controversial. While we invite your polite, constructive comments, inflammatory remarks will be immediately deleted.
Mike Sherman is a retired street cop and investigator with 30+ years of RV experience as a traveler, camp host and all-around advocate for the joys of living on the road. His articles are for general discussion purposes only – you should always consult your local authorities or legal counsel for specific answers if necessary. Write him at MikeShermanPI@gmail.com if you have questions, or leave a comment below.
##RVT896
I think your article about staying well off the road is one I always worry about if I should have a breakdown issue. I would not stay in my camper ever. I would position myself way off the road or on a side street looking at my camper until help arrived. These trailers and RV’s are not made for impact accidents, for that matter neither is a car or truck. So get out of that vehicle and get away from it as far as you can.
After full timing for 9 years, I’d call into question anyone’s judgement in driving in an RV at one in the morning. That said, it is best to stay away from camping on roadway edges just because “the bad guys” can see you so easily and make a quick getaway down the road. We’ve pulled off in industrial areas or off the road areas where the highway dept. stores their piles of dirt and sand before and felt pretty safe, but you really do want to be out of sight of the roadway if you possibly can. Stay safe, fellow campers, and happy travels.
As a small town firefighter with an Interstate highway just North of our town we are called out a lot to protect the scene of accidents on the highway. Our trucks do get ran into from behind every now and then. Yes, the shoulder of a highway is truly a dangerous place. Get WELL off the road if at all possible. Changing tire? Have all not “working” passengers way over by the fence line, as far from the roadway as possible if the weather will allow. Raining? Consider the options. Getting wet or getting dead due to your nice, dry vehicle being hit by another vehicle.
Dave J.
All I can say is this. Darwin of the Year Award goes to….. This is a no brainer. Why would anyone pull off when there are a ton of rest stops and truck stops to use. Wow. Your life is not worth it. We plan to pull off to rest stops or truck stops. Plus I have been told the police will ticket. Especially in Michigan. Most times you only have 1 hour to get the vehicle off the road.
Truck stops are for truckers, not RVs. Unless of course there is specific parking for RVs.
A similar situation happened NOT too far from my home in Louisiana on Interstate 20. A Truck Driver (18 Wheeler) Clipped the Rear End of an RV parked on the side of the Highway, lost control of his truck, flipped over, crashed on the opposite side of the Road and DIED! Not much damage to the Disabled RV, but NO Hazard Lights or Hazard Triangles were on the Highway! There was never any follow up on this story, so don’t know if there were any charges filed against the RV Owner. The RV Owner was not in the RV when the accident happened!
As a note to this article where you have to park on the Side of the Road or Highway, USE YOUR HAZARD SIGNALS and PUT OUT YOUR EMERGENCY TRIANGLES!
Perhaps 20 years ago I was traveling with my young family and had parked in a small lot just off the highway so we could use the picnic tables perhaps another 100 feet away from the road. So we were positioned perhaps 150 feet off the roadway, which had a 55 MPH speed limit. As we were sitting at the picnic tables we heard a loud boom and clanking sound from the highway, and saw that an overloaded pickup truck full of junk had dropped a vehicle coil spring on the road, which bounced right by our vehicle at high speed and landed in the woods. Just a few feet to the side and it would have done a lot of damage to our car, and there could have been serious injuries if we had also been in the car.