Audio By Carbonatix

Picture it: you’re driving downhill in a semi-truck with tens of thousands of pounds behind you. Uh-oh. No brakes, and you’re moving too fast to engine brake your way into the next curve. Fortunately, there’s a runaway truck ramp ahead. But, if this video is any indication, sometimes truckers need the entire ramp to slow from a dangerous speed to a standstill. 

A semi-truck used a runaway truck ramp on video, and the incline and high-friction surface were barely enough to stop the beast

Have you ever smelled the hot brakes of a semi-truck heading downhill and thought, “I wonder if those ever fail.” Well, they do periodically, and it can lead to a seriously dangerous situation. Especially when you consider that semi-trucks in the United States can weigh up to 80,000 lbs. As a result, many highway systems use runaway truck ramps to provide an emergency option for trucks struggling to slow down. 

But even the presence of these roadside safety features doesn’t guarantee a swift and satisfying stop. This Instagram video with nearly 30,000 likes shows a semi-truck careening toward an upward-sloping gravel runaway ramp. The driver is unable to slow enough to take the gentle right-hand curve, and instead blasts up the ramp.

You might think the gravel or sand that these ramps often employ would be enough to stop the semi in its tracks. In this case, however, the truck charges nearly the entire length of the ramp before coming to a halt. Still, it certainly beats crashing into another vehicle or spearing off a mountain. 

As odd as it sounds, several of the self-styled truckers in the comment section were quick to point out that the audio might be from another video. The engine braking, known to truckers as Jake braking, is loud and defined. But the sounds you would expect to accompany a huge, cargo-laden semi-truck as it skips onto the gravel surface are almost entirely absent. 

Regardless of microphone placement, you’d expect to hear a cacophonous assault of crash sounds. “I have a hard time believing this is the actual audio to the video. The Jake is way too audible, and you don’t hear anything crashing around,” one user commented.

Another user, who claimed to have been a truck driver for nearly four decades, pointed out that he was surprised that the truck made it so far up the hill. He said that he had witnessed a semi driving into a runaway truck ramp. According to his recollection, it sank “in the gravel up to the frame” due to its immense weight.