Hit and Run by Semi Trailer

I had tractor/trailer hit me a few years ago. He knocked my 5000lb 4 wheeler many feet sideways and kept going. This collision was nothing as bad as what you describe, but it was a substantial hit. I went after the guy and pulled him over. Assuming it was a hit and run, I went up to the cab ready to let him have it; however, it was clear right at the jump that he had no idea he had hit me. There is no doubt that he was being truthful. He was a good guy, never tried to shift blame - and it was treated like a regular accident.

I approached him like I was apprehending a criminal, and to him I'm sure I seemed like a nutjob - lol

 

i know when my empty trailer hits a bump in the road.

anyone that hits a car. will defenitly know. that's a lot bigger THUD then a bump in the road.

i could see a small curb. maybe. but not a car.

 

If the trailer was rolling normally, I'd say yes, for sure you would feel an impact with the trailer large enough to total your car. However, if it was a near jack-knife and the rear of the trailer was sliding sideways when it impacted your vehicle, I'm not nearly as certain about that. The impact wouldn't transmit to the tractor thru the 5th wheel, it would merely slow or stop the sideways motion of the rear of the trailer, helping to bring it back into line. There would be a noise, but as far as a violent tug on the 5th wheel, which is the only way you'd feel it, I don't think so.

 

if the visibility was bad and the trailer was in a jackknife it is possible, heck anything is possible. we would like to think we would know if we hit something, but its impossible to say it isn't possible.

if the was caught and sentenced I guess justice was served.

 

I'm not sticking up for or trying to give this coward any kind of excuse but about fifteen years ago I was a passenger in a pickup truck on a very dusty gravel road, we were traveling about 30 mph and drove into the back of a loaded slow moving gravel truck pulling a pup. Our truck wedged in the back of the pup and he dragged us for almost 80 feet before he decided to stop because he though he had a brake dragging.

 

I hit a Texas racoon once and it felt like I ran over a horse. He knew he hit you.

 

I do not understand how he could not know....... but I witnessed a tractor trailer that had a hitch hiker trying to get up on his flatbed trailer loading with castings front and rear, run him over and killed him, and he never stopped either. I spoke with a State Patrol Officer a few days later, and he said they never found the truck.

I was the next truck behind him, and it ran over the hikers head, so being that heavy, and turning right, with the hiker on the right side, he probably did not know. The dead man's belongings where on his trailer though, so the trucker must have known something terrible happened......I was the first one to the scene, and will never forget that night. I wanted to quit trucking right then and there.....

 

That is something I would rather not see.

I've never seen a hitch hiker on the back of a truck - do they do that often?

 

I am curious what the driver was sentenced to?

 

I had a small volkswagen rear end me once in Jacksonville, It was just as I started rolling out from a stop light, felt like a bump in the road. Didn't think twice about it. About 2 hours and 120 miles down road, State trooper pulls me over and politely informs me that I was involved in an accident. Pictures from that accident showed about the same amount of damage to the front of the vehicle as your picture shows.

Personally on narrow 2 lane roads, I always check my mirrors when someone passes me the opposite direction.
1. to make sure my trailer is in my lane
2. to make sure the other person stays in their lane.

He should have known.