Had my first minor accident today

Yes it does.
As for the op rebuttal of " I didn't see him over there until he was sitting next to me", that was the error.

 

LOL, okay. I'll let the armchair quarterbacks have this thread now. I'm done with it.

 

Unteachable.

A very stupid way to be, in any profession or life circumstance.

 

I love how it is easier for foreigners to start a business than a bona-fide American.

 

Yeah. Darn foreigners.

 

Maybe what you did was right thing to do ,but I am always keeping in mind one simply rule, give stupid the road, yeah yeah I might reach my destination 10-15 minutes late, big deal... But I know I don't need to deal with any kind of stupidity involving insurance, police etc...

 

So many drivers complain that everyone is out to get truckers, that they are trying to blame the truck driver.
And here we have truckers blaming the truck driver in a situation that was not his fault.

I had a similar situation in the Salt Lake City area a few years back when all that construction was going on.
It was with a car coming in from an on ramp, and I had nowhere to go, and hitting the brakes would have been even more dangerous.
That car ended up hitting the barrier on the right as his lane ended, because the driver would not slow down to merge correctly.

We can not always give 'stupid' the road. Sometimes that puts even more people at risk.

 

For whatever reason, some here seem to think I was being an a-hole and not backing off to let the driver in. As I said before, had this been a lane ending in a construction zone or for an accident, I have no problem at all backing off and letting the more aggressive driver merge over. But that's not what happened here, and I wasn't racing the guy to stay in front of him. Someone mentioned that I lack situational awareness. Well, I was fully concentrating on the driver in front of me and adjusting my speed downward because he had just merged over. The guy who attempted to pass me was at least 3 truck lengths behind me when the lane was ending, and I merged left in front of him. He didn't like that, and maintained his speed and came around my right side very quickly. And no, I wasn't checking my right mirror at that point because there wasn't anything between me and cow pasture but a 6 foot shoulder. Anybody who says they constantly check their right mirror when there isn't a lane to their right is full of BS. So I had a slowing truck in front of me, and an a hole to my right that was going at least 65 while I was doing 50-55. The pavement was wet, and I was empty. Perhaps some of the super truckers here could have done a hard brake without jack knifing into to oncoming lane or into the ####### on my right, but in the 2 seconds I had to think about it, I decided to concentrate on the guy in front of me and hope the guy on my right came to his senses and backed off before he crashed. Losing a mirror cover seemed like a small price to pay compared to what could have happened.

Unteachable? Yeah, some DB's just have all the answers.

 

You are misinterpreting the problem. Was the other guy at fault. Yes. Could you have done something to prevent it yes. There is no way a truck could have suddenly appeared there. Didn't happen. You claiming none of us keep an eye on that mirror is false too. Especially with a lane ending. This time it was a truck. Could've been a motorcycle. That truck was there and you simply didn't see it or recognize it as a hazard for some unknown reason. That is the error. If upset over someone pointing that out. Ts.
You are lucky it was minor, it could have been a lot worse. One day it might not be.
I'm out.

 

You are hard at work defending a defensible position.
And as many drivers here have attested to (in other threads), it is the person that is merging in that has the responsibility to merge in safely and correctly.

You did nothing wrong!