Skilled or Stupid

I am taking a refresher course and I avoided an accident today. The way I avoided it was either skilled maneuvers or stupidity. Skilled means I made a good decision to get a refresher and go back to work driving, stupid is the exact opposite. Sorry for the length, but it had to be there to be accurate.

The time was around 3:45 to 4 pm. Left hand turn to highway access road. One turn lane for left hand turns, one for right hand turns, and further to the left is a u-turn lane from the opposite side of the highway. The u-turn lane has a yield sign and merges to the right in a forced merge. I got the green arrow all 3 lanes were clear, I turned to the middle lane (correct lane) start gaining speed after the turn check my left-hand mirror. Enter SUV jackwagon that wants to play let's beat the truck to the merge point. I am about 80% of the way up and had the right of way. SUV was not slowing at all, if I kept on pace and on course SUV would have ended up under the trailer 100%. I was empty (training truck and trailer) so I would not have been able to stop in time to avoid the collision. The next option is the escape to the right. Enter hero white car!

I checked the right mirror a little white car appeared and had their fender next to the trailer. If they had been further forward, I would not have considered or been able to do the maneuvers I did next. I anticipated that if I merged partially into the right-hand lane the white car would brake a bit or move to the right where there was a wide shoulder. I calculated the risk of hitting the white car at about 5%. I hit the accelerator, jogged right, counter steered back to the left taking up a little more than 1/3 of that right hand lane. The white car saw the cab move over and backed off the accelerator, I watched the mirror to make certain of this prior to coming too far over (this is what I had anticipated). I had the room to do it as the trailer would take a small amount of time to follow the cab. Once the cab was straight, I dropped 2 gears. SUV still has not slowed down, but my move to the right and dropping 2 gears let him get around me before the merge point closed. I avoided hitting hero white car and prevented jackwagon SUV from striking my trailer. The preceding events took all of about 10 seconds start to finish.

Here is the crux of the problem, I know if I had hit the white car that would have been my fault. If I stayed straight and the SUV hit me, it would have been his fault. As you read this part remember I saw my escape path and new I had a small window to pull it off. I did not want ANY accident, even the one that would not have been an at fault accident. I landed a new local job starting the 21st. (Full hire not an orientation) I did not want to have to report an accident to a new employer, nor did I want to need to report an accident to future employers if the job does not work out. I had a lot of people saying I should have just let the SUV hit me, even though I had an escape route. I did not want to deal with post-accident crap either. I did what I had to in order to protect my license, my new job, and my future. IDK maybe I was entirely wrong. Maybe I was right to trust my instincts and react quickly.

 

I was up to 35-38 maybe a bit more. I made my turn in 5th gear, got up to 8th pretty quick. Speed limit was 45 I was getting close to upshifting into 9th. The school trucks are geared so 42 to 45 allows for 9th gear. Maybe 50 feet left on the forced merge. I did let off the accelerator while checking the right mirror, just didn't slam the breaks. I was not sure of what that trailer's reaction would have been. I didn't want it to swing out due to a hard break situation and empty.