Truckers: Motorists must learn patience

Another wintry storm hit Northwest Indiana Wednesday, bringing another ban for large and oversized trucks on the Indiana Toll Road.

Truckers were, for the most part, still getting through on other routes, especially Interstate 80/94.

Travel conditions were hazardous and the normal three lanes of traffic in each direction through Porter County were down to two, mostly snow-covered.

Truck driver Terry Hall and fellow trucker Demetrius Wilson stopped at the TA Travel Center in Burns Harbor for breakfast. Both drivers work for Jim Bender Trucking, of Omaha, Neb.; today, they were hauling meat. Wilson was going to Pennsylvania and Hall was headed to New Jersey.

Hall has been driving for 22 years. “In this weather, things are breaking down and you just take your time.”

Hall and Wilson picked up their loads on Tuesday. The trip from Omaha to Burns Harbor usually takes 7-8 hours, says Hall. Today, it took 15 hours.

Hall has seen quite a few accidents since leaving Nebraska — “Poetry in motion,” he calls vehicles sliding off the road.