Trucking's owner-operators call out the absolute worst stretch of highway in America

Asked by Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole for the stretch of road they'd describe as the absolute worst in the nation, all but one owner-operator at Shell Rotella's SuperRigs show two weeks back in Wyoming pointed straight to I-40 in Arizona. Others are calling it the absolute worst they’ve ever seen.

Danville, Virginia-based owner-operator Joey Slaughter, who runs the route routinely on cross-country step deck hauls, brought this subject to our attention. Clearly, it’s not hard to find similar viewpoints on the stretch between Kingman and Flagstaff in Arizona. I-40's condition has translated to hard dollars and lost time with equipment repairs. In this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, Slaughter tells the story of a brake shoe that came clear off his trailer on one of his regular runs through the area this Spring -- ultimately a $900 repair. 

Overdrive Radio's sponsor is After I initially told that story a few weeks back, another owner-operator wrote in to note a case of their own -- $800 lighter with repairs and hotel costs waiting on service to shocks after hauling through the area. 

Reader Jimmy Woods said he felt that I-40 eastbound out of California all the way past Flagstaff, even, “borders on neglect, and is unsafe” most definitely. He went on: “In my personal opinion as a truck driver, they are setting themselves up for a hefty lawsuit if someone were to crash through there and a lawyer prove that to be negligence” on the state's part.