is the Coquihalla Highway as bad as the tv show makes out? 4 b trains ploughing into each other every 10 seconds down 40ft embankments? semi’s sliding towards bus full of children etc? or is it just over dramatized. I enjoy watching the program, just curious.
why don’t the cops MAKE trucks chain up? why are they allowed to to 80+ mph in blizzards?
anybody drove on it during winter?
cheers
Hi, came back to UK last September after living in Alberta since July 2012. I have driven over the Coke many times in all weather and the TV programming is heavily dramatised. You do see wrecks and people do die on that road but on the whole it is not like they make out.
When the road conditions are bad the authorities do make trucks chain up to go up and down the road and the speed limit is iirc 110KPH, that is a limit however, not a target and anyone who drives a bit silly in really bad weather will be caught, either by the cops or by nature.
When the conditions get really bad though, they do close the road!
Hope this helps!
Cruise Control:
why don’t the cops MAKE trucks chain up? why are they allowed to to 80+ mph in blizzards?cheers
the same as over here, drive to the conditions.
Why did you come back to the UK, Chunk, didn’t you enjoy working in Canada?
What were the reason you decided to come back?
chunk:
the TV programming is heavily dramatised.
No surprise there then !!
The British Columbia part of Canada does have a lot of rainfall with the weather systems coming from the nearby Pacific Ocean. During the Winter, if it is raining at the bottom of the Coke, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be snowing at the top; just because of the colder temps at higher altitude. It is a very busy stretch of road, so the law of averages says there would be more mishaps than on the other routes through Hope.
Personally, I hate the film editing style of those sort of programmes. A whole series of Ice Road Truckers or Highway To Hell would be a half-hour documentary if made by the BBC.
hkloss1:
Why did you come back to the UK, Chunk, didn’t you enjoy working in Canada?
What were the reason you decided to come back?
I worked for B&D Walter Trucking, the woman who runs it messed me and most other drivers around with regards to submitting our paperwork for residency.
We could of stayed until this June when my work permit expires, however we have a 12 year old daughter and my wife and I decided it would be best to get her back to school in the UK as the education is very different in Canada to the UK.
We miss Canada, you work hard but live life on your time off!
Hope to move back in a couple of years when our daughter has finished school.
The Coke is one hell of a road in the winter, the programme is only over-dramatised because of the narrator, the wrecks are real.
I did Calgary to Vancouver for 4 years but only went on the Coke twice in the winter. There’s a road (Fraser Valley) that runs around the bottom but takes 1-20mins longer that I used every trip.
I’ve never chained up in 8yrs here.
been here 9yrs ran the coke many times summer/winter its all common sense ran europe for 21yrs just one memory of top of my head the old ip5 from villaformoso with old tilt trl no engine brake worth putting on .they got it easy lol 