Road Rage!

[mikedudley17]

it is a pick n choose ur battles thing. I wouldn't do it with a semi necessarily, seeing as it has so much more mass then me in my little jeep. About the only thing you can do in that situation is ride it out and wait for the next oppurtunity to get the name of the trucking company, license plate number, and the truck number and report it to the company. If it's an independent trucker, I'm not sure, but I believe you can use the BBB.

*truck numbers are usually one to six numbers long but may be longer and some have a letter or two in them. If you can't find it, get as much identifying info as you can.

[Thymeclock]

it is a pick n choose ur battles thing. I wouldn't do it with a semi necessarily, seeing as it has so much more mass...

Exactly. If I hadn't had sized the situation up and timed it correctly I wouldn't be here today to tell about it.

[Wolfman AK907]

I don't often do this, because the chance of being rear-ended is substantial. I do remember having to resort to it once about 3O years ago with an 18 wheeler. I'll say in advance that over 95% of professional truck drivers are usually alert and have superior driving skills. But the other few percent can be a PITA. So I'm going about 70 in the center lane on a rural interstate and this 18 wheeler keeps crawling up my ass. I accelerate for a while to relieve it, but he does it again and again over time, tailgating me even more. When we got to an upgrade (where I knew it would deflate his ego) I hit the brakes hard - then I took off. It had the intended effect, leaving him with little power to climb the grade.

I work for the biggest trucking company in Alaska, and boy let me tell you...That 5% is a lot more common than you think. I've been run off the road by big rigs, or had unsecured portable strap winches bounce off and hit my cars. Honestly, give trucks a wide birth whenever you can...I've been driving for a while and I have to say, people try to pull some stupid **** around trucks. We just had a woman driving a little car on a suspended license doing 90mph that crashed into one of our trucks head-on doing 65mph...just to put it into perspective, her car was 2800lbs, our truck was 26,000lbs by itself. Add the trailer and all the freight on that load and you're looking at approximately 81,000 gross vehicle weight. Oh, plus 250 gallon of fuel, which is roughly another 1750lbs. The car was crumpled like a beer can...the girl died and killed her boyfriend in the passenger seat. She hit out brand new Kenworth so hard it shoved the big Cummins engine into the cab of the semi. Our driver was ok, just shook up. He was back to work the next day. I had to go take pictures.......I'll never forget it.

[thehunterooo]

i watch out for police officers when im

also need to watch out for planes too

[mikedudley17]

I didn't even see that percentage thing, but in my now 3 years of dealing with these truck drivers, my experience is this: they are human. Driving all day/night is exhausting. Alot of them are on the road 12-14 hours a day, 4-5-6-sometimes 7 days in a row. They are not as alert as you want to think or hope. There are a few petrol hauling companies that base their work on the prices of the petrol from day to day. What does this mean? This means, in one work week, a driver may work 3 different shifts in one week. I can say from personal experience of doing that just as security guard, that it ****ing sux doing that ****. Mind you, petrol haulers are carrying 80,000 lb bombs around your neighborhood while tired as futz. I have had drivers fall asleep at my gate while I am logging them, which is only about a 30 second process. Alot of these guys are very friendly, but, alot of them are also very cranky. I've seen guys come in wired up on no-doze and coffee and by the end of my shift they are burnt out and falling asleep everywhere. Sometimes I see these guys and if they are drivers that are paid by the load vs hourly, I will tell them to go to a quiet corner in the terminal and sleep a couple of hours just for my own safety as there are millions of gallons of explosives all around me and a pipeline for jet fuel that goes from our terminal to Midway Airport. One accident and it could be very disastrous for the southside of Chicago. The point of all this rambling is, truckers are not exactly alert in the sense you think they are. Driving truck every day is tiring enugh, add heavy traffic and adverse weather conditions and you have a perfect cocktail for disaster. Give semis space cus like I said, they are more massive than you and Wolfs story is right on point with this.

Edited: Typing long posts on phones leads to incomplete sentences.

[mikedudley17]

None of that ^ is a joke or exaggerated. I iz seriouz, and that iz seriouz post.

[Fighting Irish]

None of that ^ is a joke or exaggerated. I iz seriouz, and that iz seriouz post.

[mikedudley17]

thank you Mr. Irish.

[Fighting Irish]

thank you Mr. Irish.

no problem. i think studying for the boards is finally getting to me... one week til the big day!

[Wolfman AK907]

None of that ^ is a joke or exaggerated. I iz seriouz, and that iz seriouz post.

+1 to everything Mike Dudley said. I don't know how your log book laws work down there a.k.a. HOS(Hours of Service), but up here you're allowed 70 on duty hours in 8 days, however you are only allowed to drive 10 consecutive hours and then you must take 10 consecutive off duty hours in the sleeper. After your 8 day trip you have to take 34 hours off to "reset".