Follow Too Close and This Could Happen to You!

That was some nice driving to avoid that mess.

 

Ive got the original off Live Leak a few days ago. The driver has had 3.5 million under his belt and claims to that day nothing ever happens around him.

This driver is also a professional in everyway, you can see that he is maintaining 6 seconds speed seperation between himself (Red hood in dash cam) and the rig in front. The rig in front excaberated the problem by following too closely another rig in front of him, I deteced maybe two seconds at most, half of which will be consumed by your mind, body reaction times as you identify the threat, make a decision or three or not at all and take the ride in the fire.

What gets me more than anything is the apparent weakness in the fuel tanks on that tractor trailer that rammed. I expected better performance from those two fuel tanks, then again maybe a custom T exhaust with big stacks may have excaberated the fire oppertunity with maybe a large train horn style air tank storing potential accelerant under pressure (Ordianary air, but if you lose pressure rapidly, the temperature falls greatly below freezing as the source of the air flow tends to try and freeze over. SImilar to what killed the USS Thresher and discovered by the Darter tests back in the mid 50's That may have fed the fire.

Notice the steer axle in it's completion tore off the rig. At that point whatever happens is no longer by choice of the poor driver taking the ride.

Notice also the driver during his braking did not just be a bone head slamming rubber to the pavement. He managed his braking with a option to steer through the trouble as the parts fall around him. He did well.

 

That was some trick driving. He'd have been stopped behind that for hours while they cleaned that mess up.

 

Just an option he took. I tell you this much it's a #### good thing that great big metal 500 pound wedge slammed flat onto the pavement. Imagine if it hit on one corner and started to tumble. Those things are capable of cutting people in half, in cars or out.

 

It takes too much effort and most people don't have enough patience to maintain proper following distance.

After getting into some near misses in my younger days, I realized that the main thing you can control is the distance in front of you.

Now my following distance is about as far as I think I can make a complete stop which is about a little less than a tenth of a mile at 60-70 mph in a fully loaded truck/trailer.

When I have a convoy of eight trucks following each other at their top governed speed of 68-69, I back way the hell off and watch insanity ensue. Also I will break the law and go faster than the speed limit to get around some fool who's being stubborn and wants to ride side by side.

 

Nothing good happens when you are in a rush.

 

There's no such thing as a safe following distance in LA, ATL, NJ turnpike, STL etc. Usually after that safe distance is created a car or two fills the empty space.

 

Haha, notice how he just keeps on going. . .