Semi fatally strikes motorcyclist, flees the scene

8/19/08
Chicago Sun-Times, United States

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The Truckers Report Merchandise

FOUR-WHEELER QUESTION: I'm not making excuses for the trucker, but just wondering...

Is it possible for a semi to strike a pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle or other smaller, lightweight object and not know it? I'm wondering if perhaps, in a case such as this, if the driver may have caught the bike with the rear of the trailer somehow and never knew he hit the guy?

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It's possible, but you feel most things you actually run over or into. You'd probably feel a motorcycle hit even if it rear ended you at speed.

So you'd have a different feel when hitting a person or cyclist as opposed to, say, running over a possum or raccoon in the roadway? (I'm just curious because I think, if I were a driver, hitting something/someone would be my biggest fear.)

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VERY possible!


And I'm willing to bet he wouldn't feel a rear end by a bike! I know a guy that was rear ended by a pickup and didn't feel much at all.


My personal experience is that I had a Honda Accord side swipe the tire area of a 24' goose neck trailer on my pick. I mean hard, hard enough to cave both doors in pretty good on the pass side. Had I not seen them in the mirror I never would have known I got hit. Funny thing was they didn't stop and I didn't either. LOL

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Size is different, I try not to hit anything and I brake for deer, but there is usually no other traffic, I don't swerve. I have hit racoon, and bumped deer, usually the deer jump up and run off,pretty tough to miss them when you see em too late. You can certainly feel a raccon, no matter if it's a front, drive or trailer tandem. If there was a bad bump at the same time and you didn't see anything, it is possible to hit something and not know it.

I've nailed deer and just totally demolished the deer, nothing but a grease spot and didn't feel that.

It jumped into the gap between the truck and trailer and then both trailer tandems rolled over it. I did have a full 80K load on.

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I've hit stuff with more than that on , we can haul 86k legally, and I always feel it if it's bigger than a possum, even if I run over it with just the trailer.

I usually catch a flash of things with peripheral vision as well, but if I didn't, I wonder, what was that? The first raccoon was the only one of the pair that crossed, got that with the tandems, and felt it, that is how I know I hit it. 79K gross in a spring ride van, super sacks of dry creamer. The trailers I usually pull now are air ride spreads. Still feel stuff with those.
When I got there with that load, they took 3 hours to unload it direct to the line, I could feel a person walking around in the trailer from the bunk. The forklift driving in would almost throw me on the floor, enough to wake someone in a deep coma, probably.

I feel anything odd, I notice it. Sometimes being me just plain wears me out.

As for the original thread, if they find that trucker, and there is evidence that the driver should have noticed it, that driver will be charged with hit and run, not good for a trucker's career at all.