Not sure if this is the best place for this but this is where it's going...
A few days ago, actually around 3 in the morning, driving on a two lane in Northern Ontario. I come up behind another truck going pretty slow and wandering all over the road. Tried to raise him on the CB but no response. After about 5 minutes he straightened up and held a steady and normal speed for 15 miles or so and then started doing the same thing again. At one point he crossed maybe a tire width over the center lane as a 4 wheeler was approaching. Drift a bit, hit the rumble strip, straighten and speed up. Slow down, drift to the oncoming lane, jerk back, straighter and speed up and the cycle continued.
I hesitated for a bit but decided to report him to the Police. There have been a couple of head ones in the area in the last 2 months in the early morning hours and as much as I don't want to get someone in trouble I don't know how I would deal with it if something happened and I hadn't done what I could to prevent it.
So anyway, I told the Police dispatcher I was following a big truck that was driving erratically, wandering around the road and not keeping a steady speed. First question they asked was whether I was in a car or was also in a semi. That kind of surprised me at first but I guess it makes sense as someone who didn't know may think a truck slowing down on a grade was erratic. They took me seriously, got all the info and asked me to call back if he pulled off, took a different road etc.
About 20 miles down the road he did pull off, I called them back, let them know where and that it looked like he was calling it a day. Myself, I pulled off another 15 miles up the road and not ten minutes later as I'm doing up the log book that truck drives by with a police cruiser right behind. Not sure what happened after that though if they followed him for any length of time I'm sure they would have observed what I had and at the least stopped him for the night.
Now to the point, two points actually.
If you can't keep it straight and steady, for whatever reason, pull over until you can.
Don't be afraid to report someone. I hesitated, for a couple reasons, but when he started drifting towards that 4 wheeler I mentally slapped myself for wasting time and made the call.
Make that three points.
Keep your radio on. If the guy would of responded I could have at least tried to keep him alert and reasoned with him to pull off at a safe place.
When to call it a day.
Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by tinytim, Apr 23, 2010.
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Guys I don't see any dilemma here at all. You tried to raise him on the CB but were unsuccessful. OK, now you are in the position of ignoring the situation, and possibly seeing him kill himself and others, or reporting him. No question at all in my mind. He needs to be off the road.
When you are sleepy, SLEEP is the only thing that will "cure" it. You can do some things to "wake you up." Such as opening windows, talking on the CB, turning the radio up and singing to it, even stopping and walking around. But these are temporary measures at best.
If you need to sleep, then do so. Just pull of and stop first!
chalupa, rocknroll nik, Kilroy and 7 others Thank this. -
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