Biggest Fears As A rookie?

For a minute, I thought I killed somebody when I was in High School. One night, my brother and I had been over to see a couple girls we were dating. I ended up marrying my girl. So we're coming over an overpass doing the 50 mph speed limit. And coming down the downslope of the overpass a guy near the bottom is on the right shoulder waving his arms (the last thing he should have been doing). He distracted me for a moment and as I was getting on the brakes and looked back up ahead I saw a silouette laying on the road . I jumped on the brakes and went into a skid and felt that dreadful thump..thump as we skid over the top of it. We kept skidding on off the road and finally stopped in the ditch just feet from a telephone pole. I took a quick glance at my brother and we both jumped out and ran back to the scene. Fortuately it was the door off a guys pickup that I had ran over. The guy had hit an oak tree at the roads edge heading the other direction. A huge 5' diameter oak tree. The frame of his vehicle was upside down on the road and he was trapped inside. The truck bed lay in the woods more than 50' away to give you an idea of the impact. I honestly thought it was a dune buggy when we ran up to it. The guy was drunk as a skunk and in pretty good shape when the fireman cut him out. When we got headed for home I ran right thru a red light. I didn't realize it but I guess I was in some kind of delayed shock. My mind was locked into that vision of the silouette on the road. Needless to say, my brother drove the rest of the way home. That stuck with me for a while. I've ran over animals many times but it doesn't even remotely compare to the thought of taking a human life.

 

Schneider egg killer!!!

 

Downshifting scares every new driver. So does backing into tight spots while seasoned pros are watching. I was nervous about both when I started out.

But getting comfortable with all phases of shifting took me just a few weeks once I was out on my own and driving every day. I'm sure some would get comfortable in less time, others might take a little longer. But shifting, both up and down, comes pretty quick once you're doing it every day.

Backing into tight spots takes a little longer, but it to comes relatively fast once you're on your own. I'm at the point now where I can back anywhere I need to. And I honestly don't care a lick if it takes me twice as long to get in the spot as it takes a more seasoned guy. I just don't give the possibility of others pointing and laughing any thought anymore. IOW, the things that scare most new drivers become a non-issue pretty quickly. So a better question would to ask what scares drivers who have a few years under their belt.

As a guy with a little over a year of experience under my belt the things that scare me are 4-wheelers doing stupid things, not having enough experience to see the signs of impeding MX issues before they get bad enough to leave me stranded on the side of the road and not having enough experience to be always know where I can get through and where I'll end up getting stuck. That last one probably applies to me more than most because I do residential deliveries of building materials in very rural areas which means I end up going down lots of sketchy dirt roads to remote locations.

But like I said, I've only got a year under my belt. I'm sure the answers I give today will be very different once I've got five or ten years under my belt.

 

I guess my biggest fear is turning down the wrong road and into some residential area where I would get stuck. I always sweat it when Im trying to find some receiver in a small town and Im on some small street with homes on both sides, and Im wondering if Im supposed to be there.As long as Im not scraping the trees, I know Im probably all right. It always feels good to suddenly see another big rig coming in the opposite direction.

 

Dogs are required to be on a leash. Its the dog owners fault. Do not swerve you will just roll your trailer. I did not see anything, so no reason to stop. If they call a cop the first question will be was the dog on a leash, no well thats pretty much the end of it.

 

Thats what reverse is for. First street you pass, stop and do a 90 degree back on to the side street, then make a right and your out of there.

 

I realize that hitting the dog was probably the right thing in that situation, but no need to be a dick!

 

how did the dog get in your rad?--try to jump over the truck ?
i think the only thing that exploded was this storey