Here in the ice road trucking industry,we call it,
Lost at see!
We have a specialised driver recruiting agency who recruits new drivers for this type of ice road driving but as soon as the driver see's the road conditions they get lost and never come back!!
( Lost at See )
To answer your question! Yes we loose alot of drivers but not because they drown in the lake but because of the uncertainty and knowledge of the fact that there might be a chance of an unfortunate incident where a truck goes through the ice and to the bottom of the lake never to be seen again, besides it's lonesome, nerve racking, uncertain and a host of other uncomadating issues, like not having a bathroom nearby in case of urgent need, unless squating outside at the side of your truck in forty below zero degree weather and bone splitting cold winds will do it for you!!
It gets so cold up here that taking a wizz outside could literally freeze yer Johnson off! Hee! Hee! Hee!
I can tell you that there are drivers who have been crossing frozen lakes all of their entire driving careers and never even come close to a mishap!
These type of drivers are the best of the best, the elite of the Ice Road industry and with all of my driving experience, I don't even come close to these guys!
To be truthful! I do a half a dozen or so trips a winter across the frozen lakes up here in Northern Canada and I need to be kicked, punched, Jabbed and physically dragged screaming like a stuck pig to my truck, tied to the drivers seat and then threatened with even more serious bodily harm before I will cross!!
I'm terrified every crossing! Hee! Hee! Hee!
The other drivers don't call me Wildbill, up here at the Lake, they call me
Scaredey Cat because sometimes when i'm laid over in the drivers bunk house the crew drivers would find me hiding under my blankets like a Scaredy Cat trying to hide form the dispatcher so I would'nt have to drive my big rig across the Lake!
A matter of fact, last year the other drivers all chipped in together and bought me a case of facial tissue to wipe the tears from my eyes because I would cry all the way across the lake and then cry like a little girl all the way back!!
Yep! Scaredey Cat, That's me!
These drivers have nerves of steel especially when driving through the wintery night in complete darkness,the ice crackling beneath them as they slowly inch their way forward further and further into the emptiness of nowhere far from the safety of the shoreline with there 18 wheels of heavy load nervously gazing down through the frosted driver side window to see openings in the ice all around them and never knowing if the road is going to suddenly collapse beneath them pulling them straight down into a frenzied free fall to the bottomless freezing dark depts of the lake and get this,
a driver could not escape even if he had time to jump from the truck, he would only be jumping into the water where he would have the life immediatly drained from his freezing cold paralized body to be snagged or sucked down by the truck on it's way to the bottom!!
If you think you might like this type of job,give me a call and I will put your name on the newbie list for this winters try out and as my friends
Teamcaffee have said, don't forget yer heated wet suit!!!!
Wildbill.....
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