Motor home drivers must be especially alert

Motor home

Carol Forsloff - On a Monday morning more than four years ago on Highway 242 in Oregon, police found a motor home on fire, blocking the roadways and its driver drunk, showing the combo of big vehicle loads and alcohol can be lethal.  The same can be true in the case of truck drivers, who also are responsible for carrying considerable weight and need to be especially alert.

Big rigs can be hard to maneuver in bad weather conditions.  They are particularly difficult to manage when a driver is drunk.

In this case a man from Redmond, identified in a police bulletin as Frank Gasperetti, age 39, was picked up by Trooper Evan Sether for drunk driving three miles from the accident scene as the motor home he had been driving was found blocking Highway 242 15 miles west of Sisters, Oregon.

The motor home was described as a 1988 Tioga 40-foot vehicle.  By 8:00 a.m. that morning  the highway had been cleared and open for traffic.

Driving a motor home requires a certain level of skill and knowledge.  In fact there are books that describe in detail how to drive a motorhome.  

"Drive your Motor home Like a Pro" was written in 2006 by Lorrin Walsh, an RVer and professional bus driver for Gray Line Tours of Seattle who
took some time off to promote his book that year.   He drives a 45-foot motor coach.  The book gives information on such basics as maneuvering, what to do before you start, driving situations, braking and the proper way to prepare and organize one's thoughts to be a safe driver. 

Walsh, a veteran RVer, is a trainer and driver for Gray Line Tours of Seattle. He took a seven-month promotional tour of the East Coast driving a 45-foot motor coach, while discussing with people the importance of being alert when one drives a motor home..

"When I started driving for Gray Line I thought I knew a lot about driving a large RV," said Walsh.  "Then I learned how much I didn't know."

Walsh underlines how important it is for people to be especially cautious when driving a motor home.  "Without some form of training or at least some reading to help learn the thought process, then there is a serious danger of problems, especially with big rigs," he says.

The National Institute for Drug Abuse spells out the special risks of driving under the influence of alcohol this way:  "The principal concern regarding drugged driving is that driving under the influence of any drug that acts on the brain could impair one's motor skills, reaction time, and judgment. Drugged driving is a public health concern because it puts not only the driver at risk but also passengers and others who share the road. "

And there are other safety considerations as well, as reflected by an accident in 2012 that killed five people and injured 13.  Only those in the front seats of the motor vehicle were using seat belts at the time.  Since then authorities have underlined that everyone in the motor home should be wearing seat belts while the vehicle is in motion.

Put the risks of driving under the influence of alcohol together with an activity like driving a motor home that takes special thought processesto do well, and you have a lethal combination.