Mike
Well-Known Member
A Dalton Highway veteran said to be the only woman driving fuel tankers to Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil fields died in a rollover crash early on Aug. 24. Authorities on Aug. 27 identified the driver as Joy Wiebe, 50, a Fairbanks resident and transport driver for many years. The crash occurred about 31 miles south of Deadhorse.
Wiebe was hauling a 59-foot tanker with 9,700 gallons of diesel fuel bound for Prudhoe just before 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 23 when the tractor went off a soft shoulder and down a steep embankment, according to the statement. The force of the impact caused the tanker to flip, which then flipped the tractor further into a swamp basin, the company said.
“I am honestly in such shock,” said Amy Butcher, a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University who is working on a book about Wiebe. “I did that road with her in April. She knew that road better than anybody.” Wiebe drove the road for 13 years, according to Butcher, who plans to finish the book, she said.
The gravel and dirt highway once known as the North Slope Haul Road runs 414 miles from the Elliott Highway to Deadhorse.
Pioneering Tanker Driver's Passing Mourned by Alaska Trucking Community
Wiebe was hauling a 59-foot tanker with 9,700 gallons of diesel fuel bound for Prudhoe just before 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 23 when the tractor went off a soft shoulder and down a steep embankment, according to the statement. The force of the impact caused the tanker to flip, which then flipped the tractor further into a swamp basin, the company said.
“I am honestly in such shock,” said Amy Butcher, a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University who is working on a book about Wiebe. “I did that road with her in April. She knew that road better than anybody.” Wiebe drove the road for 13 years, according to Butcher, who plans to finish the book, she said.
The gravel and dirt highway once known as the North Slope Haul Road runs 414 miles from the Elliott Highway to Deadhorse.
Pioneering Tanker Driver's Passing Mourned by Alaska Trucking Community