I-81 NB,Mile Marker 87 In Virginia-2 Dead

So many drivers look 10 ft in front of their hood, as for me I’m always looking as far in front of me as I can. The “Smith system” may seem simple, but if you follow its steps it can help avoid 90% of these issues drivers find themselves in.

 

I use to watch like you, then once I started hauling glass, I learned to watch even further...plus it helped when I honed my ESP skills

 

Look at that car between the Amazon contractor and the yellow truck. Wtf.

I almost couldn't tell if that was part of the truck at first.

And BRAR had to be the other fatality. Good Lord. What a mess.

And yet still I see truck drivers tailgating every day. Meh.

 

I get what you are saying, but it's really important for people to see what could happen while they're driving.

 

"Ouchie?"

 

It's not the ELD that is causing the wrecks.

It's the low pay.

If you were adequately paid, you would look at your ELD and thank it for keeping you from working too hard.

 

It was quick,,,and I've said it time and again, it's the equipment today. You roll along in your fancy "apartments" totally disconnected to what you are driving. I tell you again, when we all drove R model Macks and Crackerboxes that barely did the speed limit, we didn't have that problem,,,

 

I used to drive my personal vehicle.between S Florida and Michigan quite regularly up until 2002. Usually a 21 hour.1450 mile marathon driving all night through.

Used to have I-75 all to myself running through N Georgia and Tennessee and Kentucky between midnight and 5 am

I did the drive numerous times in the last couple years and what blew my mind was how the traffic never thinned out no matter what time you drove.

I came to the same conclusion of too many vehicles these days.

 

I hated having my field of vision blocked by vans out on the Open roads.

I wanted a 1\8 mile between us.

Either I was in the hammer lane early on upping my speed to anticipate a pass of a severe under speed limit mega or I would take the cruise down and drop back off.

I avoided packs like the plague

 

I do too. I'll just pull over and walk around the truck a lap or two, grab a snack, whatever. I run up and down 81 through VA almost constantly and the problem with my plan is lack of rest areas. I mean, there are a lot of them but they're always full.

I don't pull off on the shoulder except in one or two places the whole way between Knoxville and PA where there is a really good wide spot.

There is a mindset nowadays that pulling off anywhere is safe because you're stopping the truck to take that call, clean up your spilled coffee or whatever. It just doesn't work that way. Too many new drivers just lack common sense and good decision making skills.

To me this quick stop is still safer than running in tight packs.