A still from Black's video on Accuweather.com shows a driver standing on his truck as flood waters swirl around it.

Operations

Tractor becomes driver's island as CA roadway floods

Oct. 16, 2015

Here's a case where a tractor-trailer's heavy weight is an advantage: A driver got out and stood on his truck's hood Thurs., Oct. 15 as a mudslide overtook Interstate 5 near the border of Kern and Los Angeles counties, Accuweather.com reported.

Aaron Marsh

Here's a case where a tractor-trailer's heavy weight is an advantage: A driver got out and stood on his truck's hood Thursday, Oct. 15 as a mudslide overtook Interstate 5 near the border of Kern and Los Angeles counties, Accuweather.com reports.

Heavy rainstorms caused the mudslide, which stranded a number of passenger cars as well on the highway. The Instagram video by Jeremy Black shows the driver standing on the truck's hood as streams of flood waters break down a nearby embankment and mud swirls around the truck. Several other vehicles and what appear to be rescue personnel are seen trying to get to the driver.

"Well, this just happened," Black writes, blaming the Waze online routing app for leading him into the path of the flooding.

About the Author

Aaron Marsh

Before computerization had fully taken hold and automotive work took someone who speaks engine, Aaron grew up in Upstate New York taking cars apart and fixing and rewiring them, keeping more than a few great jalopies (classics) on the road that probably didn't deserve to be. He spent a decade inside the Beltway covering Congress and the intricacies of the health care system before a stint in local New England news, picking up awards for both pen and camera.

He wrote about you-name-it, from transportation and law and the courts to events of all kinds and telecommunications, and landed in trucking when he joined FleetOwner in July 2015. Long an editorial leader, he was a keeper of knowledge at FleetOwner ready to dive in on the technical and the topical inside and all-around trucking—and still turned a wrench or two. Or three.

Aaron previously wrote for FleetOwner.