Snow days are no fun for truckers.
Talk of ice and snow doesn’t conjure up images of warm, cheery fires, snowball fights and paid days off work for them. Wintry weather makes them think of wrecks, traffic jams, middle-of-nowhere truck stops and unpaid time off.
Kimberly Welch drives a day cab making local deliveries for a small Knoxville-based trucking company, and she said Wednesday that taking an unpaid day off was a better option to her than fighting traffic in the ice and snow.
“You never get used to it,” she said. “You talk about making a person a nervous wreck. It’s not so much that I’m afraid to drive in it, it’s what everyone else does.”
There were at least 70 crashes in the Chattanooga area alone Wednesday, thanks to the little bit of ice and snow that struck in the morning.