Now you know what it's like to drive an 80,000# big truck. It takes 300 meters to stop from 60 mph. I spend my day cursing idiots who have absolutely no knowledge of, or respect for, the job I'm doing. Stress? What stress? I save a moron's life daily; and, they have no clue that it even happened.

 

Yep my father is an over the road trucker. When I've riden with him it is unbelievable how people will cut right in front of him. He has a Western Star with a long hood and you wouldn't believe how quickly a little Honda (CIA )will disappear from view.

You learn new respect for these guys. Yea some are jerks but most aren't. I let em over whenever I can. Oh and view down into cars ain't bad either....women love to show off for truckers.....

 

I look at it like this....Your bigger, and heavier. It takes longer for you to stop, and it takes a little bit longer for you to get up to speed.

I have the same respect for a trucker as I do a biker. I need to watch out for you, just as much as I need to watch out for bikers. I see people cutting off a rig, and it makes my stomach turn. How insane.

 

Every job has it's perks.




Apparently, I over did it on the stopping distance a little. It's more like 450 feet at 60 mph with reaction distance included. I must be getting old. It's 360 feet from the time you get your foot to the brake, not meters. At 65 it goes up to 550 feet with reaction distance included. Still a long way before you are stopped.

How do we avoid running over people on a daily basis you might ask?

We can see over traffic to get a head start on braking; and, we learn to anticipate stupidity. I often know what some idiot is going to do, before he does. All you have to do is think of the worst thing someone could possibly do in a situation, and start preparing for it to happen.

 

dzervit, vader:
Why do you even bother to post messages like these? What do you hope to accomplish? Show the internet world how tough you are? Or do you just need to vent? Go to a Mental Health forum for that. vader - your sig says "justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope". A sharp contrast to the attitudes you are expressing! dzervit: Why don't you just get back to kicking your dog and walking around looking for ants to step on?!

 

Not everyone that drives a '4-wheeler' is an idiot. I don't mean to give that impression. We appreciate it a lot when we see people who are courteous drivers. Unfortunately, there aren't as many of them as there could be. A little knowledge would take care of some of the problems. Drivers' Ed. doesn't cover it at all. When I started driving professionally, I shuddered to think of all the boneheaded things I had done in a car out of ignorance.


Don't get me started on old people and cell phones. Or even worse, old people with cell phones.

 

That's exactly what I ask. We were working on the my car in the middle of the night on the side of the highway and a number of semi trucks refused to move over in the second lane. Traffic was light and there was no reason they couldn't scoot over a wee bit for safety sake. We tried to signal a few over with a flashlight. From what I hear, not moving over a lane is illegal in Wyoming (where we were) if someone is on the shoulder)

radar_ridr - Who do you think you are Bub? Watch out who you step too on here.

 

They should have gotten over. There are people driving trucks that don't have any business doing it, too. Hopefully, they were able to see you in time. Working on the shoulder of the road, especially in the dark, is not an ideal situation to be in. Hopefully you had your hazard lights on and got as far off the road as you could. You wouldn't believe how many people don't in that situation.

 

Oh lord it was a joke. I thought I laid the sarcasm on pretty thick. Apparently not thick enough. I really like peddling my machismo on a message board. You can really see how bad I am by looking at my text. If I really want to be tough I add bold and type in CAPS. Really scares people.

Relax a little or your summer ain't gonna be much fun.

For those who missed the copious amounts of sarcasm how about this response.

What wonderful advice. I have made a note of your suggestions and have mass mailed them to my company. Thanks for making the roads safer for the rest of us. I have CC'd Robert Johnson I'm sure he can add to the list.

 

Actually we had the support of a local recovery vehicle that had plenty of lights flashing and otherwise. Not everyone's perfect and you cant blame the perfect for that.

 

Point taken, Vader. Sorry. I need to lighten up a bit I guess.

 

No worries....It's all good from my end....I'll try to make sure I'm more obvious when I'm joking.

Now Dzervit....you got to worry about him....I hear The National Association of kicked pets has filed a multi-million dollar suit against him. Seems every time someone doesn't use search he kicks his dog....poor thing.

 

If that's the case, the poor pooch must be scared to death right now.

 

Whew! Just got done kicking my dog... looks like I missed quite the little rant.