57 thoughts to “#926 The Runaway Truck Ramp”

  1. You know I was disappointed with the word “ramp” by the the time I got to the top I had lost momentum and could not clear the gully on the other side….. I lost my sponsorship deal as a result…. not-so-awesome

    1. You’ll hear a ton of contractions if you go to Newfoundland. Actually, pretty darn near anywhere in the Maritimes.

    1. >.> Have you never been to any mountain range?
      Cause that’s no “hill.” That’s a mountain.

  5. when I was about 8 years old we drove from new York to Mexico. You would not believe the levels of awesomeness I felt when my dad explained what those were for.

  6. Nice, but charging up the incline on the far side would be a far more thrilling way to bleed off that extra velocity.

    And here’s an awesome thing I thought of: getting 2 things from a vending machine for the price of one by choosing the product that is almost hanging off the little spring. Makes me happy, at least.

  7. Runaway trucks are kind of awesome to start with. It’s nice they get their own ramps. I like on the Wikipedia article how they’re also called “gravity escape ramps”. I think mylesfromnowhere might also find that to be disappointing, though.

  10. Totally agree. Runaway Truck ramps – AWESOME. When I was 6 my truck ran away, but two days later we found him congregating with a bunch of other runaway trucks at our local ramp. He was cold, and lonely, and completely ready to come home. That runaway truck ramp probably saved his life.

    But I wasn’t always so lucky. When I was 11, my train ran away, and we looked everywhere but couldn’t find him. To this day, I’m still haunted by that stupid Soul Asylum song reminding me that he is “never coming back.” In fact, he’s probably already been purchased as scrap metal by the Chinese. Fuck – I miss that train. (drwizard.wordpress.com)

  11. Can i just say that with each awesome thing im more convinced that we are soulmates because you get me.

    I love runaway truck ramps

  12. Is it more sad or awesome that I know from the terrain and the curve of the road exactly where that damn picture was taken?

  14. They have arrester lanes in the Charlevoix in Quebec. I always thought they just slowed the truck down by the weight of it driving it into the gravel.

  16. @The ranter formerly known as Dave

    It’s awesome, and I say that simply because I’ve actually seen a truck use that particular ramp. Legen-Awesome-dary.

  17. I’ve always secretly wanted to go up one of those ramps but never did because I was afraid an actual runaway truck would come up behind me and smash me to smithereens. Haha.

      1. It also looks exactly like every runaway truck ramp I’ve ever seen.

        I’m not sure what the distinguishing feature is here that you guys are picking up on. It’s the best possible “generic truck ramp” picture I could imagine. :)

        1. It’s on the West side of the Eisenhower Tunnel in Summit County, CO. I guess I’ve driven I-70 way too many times!

  20. Saved my life! Going through Vermont we ended up losing our brakes in a snow storm, the runaway truck ramp made us not die. The are awesome.

  23. a friend of mine once took his parents mini van down one of those gravel ramps on a road trip(just for fun)…tore out the whole underneath of the van!

  24. I grew up in staten island and never heard of these until I moved to PA, and were pretty common up in wilkes-barre. I was so tempted…

  25. I just found this site a while back when a friend of mine suggested it to me. I’ve been an avid reader ever since.

  26. We call them Truck Arrester Beds where I come from. My mate ‘accidentally’ drove his Lancer into one, and he ended up selling it because he couldn’t handle the rattling from all the little bits of pea gravel still stuck in his car haha.

  28. OMG! just heard of this site this morning..where have I been! This is awesome! So much better than the morning paper LOL!,

  29. I wonder how often these ramps come in handy. With how rare they are, what are the chances of having a brake failure and having the opportunity to use the runaway ramp? (Still, I’m sure they have saved a few lives.)

    I’ve never seen one, but it’s a great concept. There should be one by every rest stop and weigh station on the interstate. This couldn’t cost much to implement… it’s just a short offshoot lane and some sand.

  30. Can a runaway car use a runaway truck ramp? And I’ve also always wondered what happens when you get to the top? Don’t you just slide down backwards (because your brakes aren’t working) and back up the slope you have just runaway on, then back up the ramp, then back up the slope… until you eventually lose momentum or oncoming traffic gets in your path.

    That is assuming your gears aren’t working either.

  33. that runway ramp looks like part of the Coquihalla Connector,.. 97C in BC, between Merritt and Westbank

  35. The Fraser Canyon, in BC. does not have enough of these, for the cars to use when truck is on bumper; beautiful scenery but freaky!!!

  39. i live in Tennessee and have seen one of these before. Truck drivers still get killed going down the ramp but it saves the other drivers from being run over. Luckily it seems to be very rare that anybody needs to use it.

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