Christmas eve, we were at the in-laws for the family thing. My wife's brother is a cop, his son and daughter are also cops. I have noticed that the son always has a smug attitude, but this night he really turned it up. Now, he is a local cop, he's been on the job 2.5 yrs so he's still learning the ropes, although apparently he thinks he know it all. He's 27 so he's only been driving in general for 10yrs with very little highway exp.. Going to college, he went to school in Grand Junction (he grew up in Brighton), Colo. for two years so he would make the 220 mile drive back and forth a couple of times per year. He has told me this gives him the exp. to know better than me. He then dropped out and went to school in Greeley where he only came home more frequently, but he was always in traffic and not really in snowstorms or bad roads.
Anyhow, we were having a discussion about an accident that occured on the 23rd when a semi hit a CDOT plow http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...eports/98387-i-70-crash-semi-vs-snowplow.html . He made a comment that he doesn't understand how the driver could miss the plow with all those strobe lights. I told him that when a highway dept plow is working, especially the one's with wing blades, and both blades are down clearing the right lane and right shoulder, they kick up so much snow that if the wind is blowing, it is very easy to loose the plow in the snowstorm it creates in it's wake and that sometime you won't see it again until your right next to it. As I pointed out to him, Weds. I was on my way back to Denver from Nebraska, coming down I-76 I encountered a CDOT plow. He had his front blade down and his right wing blade down. There was a 25 to 35 mph cross wind, we were on the stretch between Keenesberg and Hudson. He was kicking up so much snow that when I first saw it, I thought someone had gone off the road and kicked up a cloud, but when I didn't see it dissipating, I realized it was a plow. From the time I first saw the snow cloud he was kicking up until I finally passed him (probably 20 minutes) I only saw his strobe lights 3 times and never actually saw the body of the plow truck until I was beside it. He was doing about 40 mph I passed him at about 45 to 50.
He told me that he drives around plows all day long (on surface streets) and never looses sight of them, and that I don't know what I'm talking about. When I asked him how many times per week he drives I-70, I-76, I-80, I-25 in rural areas where there is nothing to block the wind from whipping the snow up he said he doesn't. I then suggested that when he has driven those roads a couple of times per week for a couple of years in the winter to then come back and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.
In the past he has tried to tell me the law about semi's, when I asked him how he did on his Motor Carrier certification exam, he said his dept. doesn't require it. I handed him a log book that was 2 months old, that I knew had 8 violations in the last 10 days of the month, and told him to find the violations, he came back and pointed out things that were not violations and completely missed the ones that were violations (obvious HOS 70hr rule violations). When I showed them to him, he got pissed about it.
So I'm curious, from all including the LEO's, who is more off base on this. Is this something that everyone has encountered and my nephew just needs a little more exp. in life. When we got into this discussion, he took on this smug, "I'm a cop and I know it all" attitude and tried to make himself out to be the expert on everything.
Question to the forum, and LEO's
Discussion in 'Trucking Industry Regulations' started by striker, Dec 27, 2009.
Page 1 of 2
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
-
-
-
-
-
So I'm curious, from all including the LEO's, who is more off base on this. Is this something that everyone has encountered and my nephew just needs a little more exp. in life. When we got into this discussion, he took on this smug, "I'm a cop and I know it all" attitude and tried to make himself out to be the expert on everything.[/QUOTE]
He is probably writing every truck within grasp a ticket for something this week to prove to you he knows what is going on.
Hopefully he learns both the law & how to apply common sense to what is happening around him as he matures in his position... But don't ever expect to hear "you were right about ..." -
-
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
Page 1 of 2