Hit and run, DRUNK DRIVER

Ok, here is the story....

I'm a local driver here, i run Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and that's about it. I was headed up to Petoskey about 2.5 weeks ago. It was 2am, bar closing time. It was gently snowing (Not slick until i needed to stop, will get to that)

Mind you, 2am. I was the only truck on the road, i had 90,000LBS on the deck (We pull quads). I was coming down the Zilwaukee bridge on I75 in the center lane when i realized i was approaching a pretty slow moving pickup truck, i moved one lane to my left in an attempt to pass said truck.

200 Feet and closing, pickup truck is doing roughly 20 miles an hour less than i am, truck moves over into left hand lane directly in front of me. I move, again over into the center lane and continue to close on the vehicle, roughly 100 feet out the truck moves over in front of me again, i tap my brakes. The trailer starts to slide (Which is weird for a quad and 90k), so i take the next best option and move one lane over to the right.

Right on top of pickup truck, it moves over directly in front of me again. Check my left hand mirror, car approaching in center lane, move over onto berm, ease on the brakes again. Still sliding, but i can slow down slightly (However, at this point stopping is completely out of the question), im pulling a flatbed here, not tampons and toilet paper (Which is what i told safety). Thought about moving to shoulder, looked up and noticed guard rail, also out of the question, on the other side of guard rail was a ditch, another option out of the question.

These things both happened at once, i was moving to the right, she was moving to the right and eventually it was a mutual collision on both of our parts. She side-swiped me (Sort of) on the front left side, i was doing roughly 40 by the time the impact happened (As i said, slowing was about all that i could do without losing the truck, or my life). Basically it was one of the scariest moments i've ever had. Not for my life, but for those in this pickup truck who seemed as if they were intentionally trying to get me to hit them. Eventually i bring the truck to a stop on the shoulder with my four ways on, and immediately run back to the pickup to make sure everyone is alright.

Female driver is crying histerically (Can't say that i blame her) i knock on the window and she ignores me. Meanwhile, male passenger (Who completely missed the fact that i had just run back to check on them) begins walking up to my truck to talk to me, i ignored it and opened the door to make sure the crying female wasn't injured, she then appologized and said "I diddn't see you!" (How that's possible i don't know...But anyway) i pat her on the back and try calming her down and i say "Don't worry about that now, are you alright?" she says yes, etc. So the male walks back (I guess he realized where i was) and he gets very close to me (Close enough that i can smell the stench of alcohol on his breath) I ask him if he's alrightr and his reply is "Are you alright?" Mirroring my question back to me. I walk to the back right side of their truck and observe the damage, it's about halfway hanging off, they have a flat tire, etc. And i pull my phone out, the guy walks up and asks what i'm doing and i tell him that i'm calling the police and he replies "Naw man we're alright! You don't need to call anybody" right.. Like, that's not the first thing they teach you in truck driver orientation. Obviously i'm going to call anyway. I'm not losing my job trying to explain this to my company, lol.

So i'm explaining to him that i have no choice, i HAVE to call someone. Otherwise the ramifications, well, they could be bad nonetheless. I have a large blackjack phone, so i KNOW that when i dialed 911 he saw it, clear as day. I began walking up the road to see what milemarker we were at so that i could inform the police and the man walks with me for a bit, BEGGING me to hang up the phone, telling me when can work it out on my own, and that i don't need to call anybody. I completely ignore him and just keep walking. Now that i know they're both alright i'm just pissed at them for being such ####### and involving me in their stupidity when i should be well on my way to being unloaded and home by noon-oclock. Either way, the police report had to be made, i wasn't explaining this to my company without getting their idiotic ##### involved in the situation.

911 Dispatcher answers, i get as far as telling him that there had been an accident that involved a commercial vehicle and a pickup truck, i tell him what milemarker we're at and i hear a loud screeching sound. Holy ####, this guy had run back to the truck got in, and they were LITERALLY driving north on i75 on a #### rim!!! I couldn't believe my eyes!! The license plate light was out i couldn't get a plate number (Which SHOULD have been the FIRST thing that i did, but obviously i was more concerned with their safety and covering my butt!) So i announce to the dispatcher that they are leaving, like 5 times i think. He asks me what the truck looks like and i tell him. I diddn't count on them being cought becuase it was an hour before the officer showed up to look at my truck, let alone worry about where the hell they went to.

The officer was very polite, he realized i was shook up, and even though i KNEW they were both drunk (What other explanation is there for doing something like that?) that i'm glad i diddn't hurt anyone, etc. etc. And i told him i was going through my head trying to think and think if there was some way i could've avoided that and honestly i could come up with absolutely nothing. I was pretty impressed with how i handled it, given that i have a 6 year old daughter at home that expects her daddy at the end of the day and that i'm not "panic braking" or jerking the wheel with a 13 foot 90k load of lumber, sorry i don't know what to tell you. I WILL slow down enough to not kill someone but ill be ###### if i kill myself trying to avoid some drunk #######. Anyway, the officer made me feel better by telling me that his wife and kid could've been driving next to them, and if it hadn't been my truck it might have been them. And, well, yeah that's true. Maybe god put me there, who knows? I do know this. My safety department was pretty rough on me, they told me i was going too fast for the conditions and i should've been able to stop, etc. etc.

Now, if this was a 2 lane road, i would have been able to slow down, or stop. I wouldn't have "let it roll" down the hill as much as i did. But, as professional drivers let me ask you all honestly, when you're on a 3 lane interestate and there are NO CARS around you ANYWHERE are you better off letting it roll down a hill a little bit, or trying to slow it down? My safety department pretty much made it sound like i should've used my engine brake, or my service brakes to slow the vehicle down. Which would've then risked loss of control, or a jackknife on the slick conditions. If there are 3 lanes and 2 of them are empty why would i take those risks? There was NO WAY in hell i could've POSSIBLY seen what this truck was doing to do only seconds before i made my move to pass (3 DIFFERENT TIMES). The only way that this accident was preventable is if i was a phsycic. You simply CAN NOT avoid someone that doesn't want to be avoided. Now, i'm not saying this was deliberate on their part, but sitting where i was sitting it sure a hell seemed like it!

Needless to say, they were at fault immediately simply becuase they ran. But, i wanted more. After my safety department pretty much made it clear to me that i was telling a lie becuase i obviously hit something (after 3 years of driving i just hit a random object on a 3 lane interestate, apparently) i wanted these ######## found!!!

The guy from the T/A comes down the road to bend out my bumper for me, and replace my steer tire (The bumper had bent in, and popped it) and i explain to him what happened, he said well if they drove off with a flat they diddn't get far. He leaves and about 5 minutes later my phone rings, it's the T/a Driver, he took it upon himself to go up one exit and start driving around hotel parking lots. He described to me exactly what the truck looked like without me telling him first and i'm like that's it!! He said he saw it parked in the back of an econolodge at the exit 160, so we both call 911. Up until today, i had wondered if they were caught or not... Yesterday, the guys insurance company called me, wanting to know if i was injured. So i guess that's a big fat yes!! THANK GOD!

This job is my livelihood. I take great pride in my safety record, and my driving ability. And, even though this wasn't my fault i am very, VERY upset that it's going to be on my driving record, and possibly my DAC. I guess i can live with that, but what i'm really looking for here is someone to tell me that they agree with me. That they would've done the same thing, honestly, what else can you do? You don't jerk the wheel on snow, and you #### sure don't slam on your brakes!! Man, i'm so pissed about this. I want to see if it's on my DAC as preventable or not. Any thoughts, or opinions?

 

OH i forgot to add that, my air horn was froze up.

 

Yeah, the male was the passenger, and was drunk. I am unsure on the female becuase she never got out of the vehicle, but judging by what she did while driving i'm willing to bet she was under the influence as well, why else would you run off when i called the cops?