BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. — While the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has been adamant about staying off the roads, you might have to drive into work, the hospital or another essential visit.
Truck drivers also don’t have a choice — they need to be on the roads, delivering products, oftentimes driving all the way across the country.
“Winter time is always a bad time,” truck driver Demetrius Spear said. “Whenever it snows, rains, sleets, any kind of adverse weather is always bad for a truck driver.”
Spear stopped at a Pilot Travel Center in Bullitt County Thursday morning to get gas before he got to his final destination.
“I got a load of potatoes going to right down the road to Shepherdsville, Kentucky,” Spear said.
Spear picked up that load in northern Illinois and faced some tough conditions as he got further south. The icy winter conditions change how truck drivers have to operate.
“You slow the truck down, you slow your speed down,” Spear said. “You try to be as careful as you can.”
Another truck driver, Ally Mtinginya, is on his way to Florida. He picked up a load of wood flooring in Indiana Thursday after dropping off another delivery there Wednesday.
“I unloaded and I was just sitting on the truck stop just resting,” Mtinginya said. “Lucky for me, I guess. I didn’t have to be on the road when it was really bad.”
Mtinginya said if roads get really bad, he’ll stop and wait it out. The people who are getting the deliveries understand conditions change and getting there safely is better than not getting there at all.
“To make sure I’m there on time, you risk your life, you risk other people’s life,” Mtinginya said.
When you see truck drivers on the road, they ask that you give them space. If you see a truck make a turn signal, that is not a sign to speed up and pass them. Trucks are heavy, and it’s harder for them to slow down and stop than a four-wheel car.
These drivers have a job to do that will benefit everyone in the long run.
“They’re just trying to make it from A to B to deliver something you might need,” Spear said.
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