First off, for years the trucking industry has been painted as the stereotype movie truck driver straight out of "Convoy" running illegal, throwing caution to the wind, hammer down and ta hell wid da bears...

WRONG!!!! In every group of people, every cross section of humanity there are a few bad apples..but in this case, one bad apple doesn't make the whole basket bad..Most truck drivers are in compliance of federal laws better than 95 percent of tghe time, the other 5 percent is human error..

Human error..that nice little catch phrase..the most perfect driver in the world can definately just have a bad day. and that is all drivers..everyone needs to remember that.

Now, back to the question at hand..every trucking company I have worked for has run us all through a program called the smith system of driving. Look it up on the internet..there are 18 wheeler drivers who still have nightmares about that 8 hours of class and if you happened to go through it at jb hunt it was twice that, including a van ride where everyone had to drive and say what they are looking for and doing according to the smith system..

Now, lets look at the typical day of each driver..a trucker, and joe smoe accountant..

Joe smoe accountant works an 8-5 job, gets to come home, sleep in his bed next to his wife, with his 2.3 kids in the other bedrooms of his blue house with the white picket fence and the 2.3 vehicles sitting in the driveway.

JT trucker spends 98 percent of his time on the road, sleeping in his truck, home to see his family on average 5 days out of the month. IF HE IS LUCKY!

Joe smoe gets a home cooked meal every night, and breakfast in the morning before hopping into one of his cars, pulling out of his driveway without looking, talking on his cellphone, and fumbling in his briefcase, and doesn't see JT trucker coming down the road heading to a delivery at wally world a block away from Joe smoe's house..because of Joe Smoe's lack of attention to his driving, Joe smoe is dead, and JT trucker gets the third degree.

Typical day, any time, any where usa.

BKE

This story happened many years ago, but I remember my Mother telling me this story of a friend of her's. Her friend was a suicide jockey and he always hauled dynamite or explosives. On this occasion, he was driving along, when he came upon a fire on a bridge. I believe it was another vehicle that had caught fire, and there wasn't much of a shoulder. When he noticed it and realized how bad the fire was, he had a very limited amount of options he could do. He could try to stop, but that would not be smart, because even if he could, he would be to close to the car. The risk that his cargo would explode was to great. He couldn't manuver around it because of the position of the vehicle and other vehicles on the bridge. What he did decide to do, was to drive his truck off the road, before the fire, and into the water below the bridge. He did this and jumped out of his truck before it hit the water. He was hurt very badly, but no one else was hurt as a result of him going off the road. This goes to show you the dedication, professionalism, and respect truckers are willing to go through to prevent situations that could have grave consequences. My Mother's friend put his life on the line because he knew that if he didn't, many people would have been hurt or killed. Most of the truckers I have come across are just like him. They are professional, responsible, and caring.

Exactly!
Before my husband started driving OTR I did not realize just how much truckers go thru and what spots to stay away from on a truck, etc.
I am not taking up for 4 wheelers because some of it is just plain and simple common sense but some things like when they see a big truck is going to turn on to the street they are on and they pull all the way to the end of the street and there is no way in he!! that truck can turn down that street now.
But you start to realize that once you ride/drive a big truck.
The only company my husband has drove for that USE to have their dispatchers ride inside a cab for a certain amount of days was Barr-Nunn.
Toward the last year of my husband driving for them it appeared they slacked off on that, therefore they sort of lost touch with what their drivers go thru on a daily basis!
I will end with this
WITHOUT TRUCKS AMERICA STOPS!

Any ideas as to what it would take for all to somehow, for lack of better words....be safer out there on the roads??

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First of all I know for a fact that "18wheelers" as you put it cause less accidents than most people on the road and as for what was said earlier most of them are because of the other idiots in cars that don't want to get stuck behind a big truck and pull right out in front of them. As a matter of fact there is a situation right now that there are jeuvenile children throwing rocks in the windshields of semis while they drive under the portage bypass on the toll road in Indiana...whos fault is it then if they get into an accident...know the facts before posting bad things about truck drivers...

Seems to me most accidents are caused by snotty little yuppie types in brand new SUVs, talking on cell phones, checking their email, or putting on eye makeup, while trying to get ahead of trucks by cutting them off.

But hey maybe that's just my messed up way of thinking.

I posted the news article to this in the TRUCKERS NEWS forum today.

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I would also like to note the amount of press that occurs when a large truck is involved in an accident. When most four wheelers get into an accident, it is never mentioned on the news or in the press, unless it is a major accident. When a large truck gets into an accident, it is usually in the papers or on the news.

The SINGLE most contributing factor in auto accidents is women FARDING.

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A few years back (In 1994 or so) while I was driving for a large West Michigan Carrier, I was making a pick-up in southern Arkansas. I don't recall the town, but I had been there numerous times picking up for Meijers Dist Center in Lansing. Anyway, the ramp off a 4-Lane US highway lead to another 4Lane US Highway. But 1/4 mile past the end of the ramp, the right lane ended and merged left to cross the over pass.
I entered the roadway from the onramp, (knowing I had to merge left soon) and looking into my mirror for traffic, therre was no one next to me, nor immediately behind me (in the left lane). But there was someone in a large SUV several car lengths behind me. I merged over and then about 1/4 way across the bridge, I heard a horn honking and looked into my mirror. The lady driving the SUV was directly behind me, honking, flashing her bright lights and flipping me off. I laughed and ignored her.
As I was looking at oncomming traffic, two cars past me going the oposite direction. The third vehicle, a pick-up coming toward me suddenly slammed on his brakes, and started to skid sideways. As I watched him slide past the front of my truck, I saw the reflection of the SUV (that had been behind me) in the mirror PASSING me on the bridge.
Almost immediately after that, I saw the pick-up collide with the SUV. I pulled off the road on the other side of the bridge, parked and ran back to the accident. The man in the pick-up was beyond help. Other 4-wheeler drivers had also witnessed the accident and were attending to the lady in the SUV.
The ASP were called, and then an ambulance. I had to under-go several minutes of "grilling" by the ASP because the woman driver of the SUV told him that I "ran her over" into oncomming traffic. I had to wait up the road at a convienence store until the accident scene was cleared. At that time the ASP came back, and told me that all the other witnesses had told him basically the same story I had told, that the woman was following me too closely and passed ME after I was already 1/2 way across the bridge, as also evidenced by the Pick-up's skid marks. He also told me that she had been ticketed for careless, unlawful passing, DWI, and suggested she might be charged with Vech Manslaughter.


My vehicle was not involved and did not get so much as a scratch, but I attribute THAT more to sheer luck than driving skills.
I never heard anything else about that. No one ever so much as called the company I drove for that I know of.

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