Know your limitations (get some sleep)

Last week, I was behind two drivers who were falling asleep. Both ended up in the grass. Thankfully, they both stayed upright, but neither was able to make it back on to the road due to all the rain we had in Ohio and Indiana. They were very short, very expensive naps.

The first seemed to realize he had to get off the road, and put his right signal on about a half mile before I-70 exit 10 in Ohio, where there are 2 truck stops. I thought, thank God, he's jumping off up here. But he faded, drifted toward the median, and hit the rumble strips right as he was passing the off ramp. That's when I called the cops. I hate doing that, but this was as bad as I've ever seen, and someone could've gotten killed. Sure enough, I watched him go into the ditch a few miles later, coming to a stop around mile 6.

The second truck was ahead of me going slower and I moved over to pass. Then randomly, for no reason and with no signal, he moved over in front of me. I backed off and thought, here we go again. I had a couple miles to go before getting off at exit 123 in Indiana, and he was getting worse. I yelled on the radio and flashed my lights, but he kept hugging the left shoulder, hitting the rumble strips and barely staying out of the grass. I got off at the 123 (where there are also 2 truck stops), and met my meet driver to swap trailers. Sure enough, a couple hours later one of our drivers called me to warn me that the left lane was shut down for a truck in the median. I said, "let me guess. Is he just east of the 123?" And he said, "yep, he's at the 126. How'd you know?"

Don't let yourself go past the point of no return. Both of those drivers found that point around 3 miles past exits with truck stops. There was no excuse.

 

Not sure. Not big fleets that I recognized. The westbound one in Ohio was a reefer, and I didn't get close enough to the eastbound one to find out, but I think it was also a "shiny-hiney" reefer.

Come to think of it, I saw another reefer with tons of chicken lights on it in the grass on 70 in Indiana around the 115 exit last week as well. Reefers must be bad for your health!

 

That's a rough time for most drivers. That's when I tend to get on the phone with my fellow night walkers.