There’s no need to worry, Mrs Shiers
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RE: EDITORIAL Comment in CM 16 February. It’s probably too late, but perhaps I can do my bit to reassure Mrs Shiers that the Dalton Highway, while a scary enough road, is not nearly as dangerous as the Ice Road Truckers TV series would have us believe.
I say this because in 2004, four years before the series was irst aired in the UK, my colleague Peter Connock and I travelled from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay in the company of Jack Binder, senior driver for Alaska West Express (pictured). Jack had driven The Dalton regularly since it was irst opened in 1974 and was driving a 10x6 Freightliner tractor unit coupled to a four-axle semi-trailer. We have him on record saying that he knew of no fatalities on the highway up until that time, whereas Ice Road Truckers later suggested that these were almost an everyday occurrence.
So Mrs Shiers, as Will has already conirmed, there has been a generous degree of exaggeration when it comes to highlighting the hazards one might encounter along the route. But rest assured, the Alaskan truckers do know what they’re doing and Lisa Kelly has shown herself to be a competent and responsible driver. So you need have no worries when Will takes to the Dalton. I just wish I was going with him!
Martin Phippard Warminster