Describe to a noob your worst "close call" and how you avoided it.

Going North on I-25 out of Denver; granny lane about 60mph. About 1 mile ahead a 4wheeler pulls into traffic ahead of me, but it was smoking badly. They pulled off the highway into the emergency lane (going about 25mph). As I approached to pass (could not move to next lane because of heavy traffic) they did what I hoped they wouldn't; they pulled right in front of me back into the granny lane! Did I mention I was on a slight downhill grade and grossing 79K? Did they live? Yep. I took to the emergency lane at 60mph (right where they had been 1 second earlier) and prayed they stayed right where they were. That is one reason why you DO NOT use the emergency lane for anything but an EMERGENCY!

 

I was NB on I81 just north of Harrisburg, Pa in the hammer lane passing another 18 wheeler when an 18 wheeler going south was going too fast or got off the edge of the road (he was also in the hammer lane).
He came through the median headed for the northbound side and me.
I couldn't get over because of the other truck, and I was far enough ahead of him that he couldn't see what was going on.
Anyway, the driver in the median regained control enough to keep from coming into the NB side, and went by about five feet from me and continued down the median, got back on the SB side and when he hit the SB side he flipped on his side blocking both lanes.
Luckily, during his ride through the median, the other SB traffic slowed enough that nobody hit him after he flipped. The only thing that got hurt was his pride!
What did I do? I gripped the wheel tighter and after I got to safe place, I pulled over and changed my pants.
The guy that I was passing never saw anything until the guy was laying on his side. He asked me on the CB " How did that guy manage to flip on his side on a straight road?" I proceeded to give him the details on how it happened, and he stopped when I did. Not for the same reason I stopped,
but he needed a minute to think about "what might have been", if the other driver hadn't been able to keep it in the median.
Maverick

 

I "signed in" to Texarkanna. I took my eye off the road for a minute and the tandams smacked a jersey barrier in a construction zone. Probably left a black stripe on the concrete.

Trainer saw the whole thing (he was on theshotgun side). Soiled both our shorts. After our hearts stopped pounding, he lit up a cigar, took a few puffs then laid into a reading from the book of "what NOT to do".

After the 3rd mile I interrupted and told him he was a #######.

"You're a smoker, you already got to light up. I really NEED a drink right now, and I'm the one stuck driving this truck!"

In short, we laughed it off.

 

Why not share a war story for my first post.

I-15 North in Southern Cal. Middle of the night, raining, no moon, black as hell out, near the Glenhellen (sp) Parkway. No traffic behind, infront, or coming at me. Had a full 4 lanes of travel at my disposal. Was hauling vaults of carpet for trade shows, and was probably grossed out to around 74,000lbs. I was in the #2 lane cresting a hill traveling somewhere around 57mph, had full view of the road for a 1/4 mile (gotta love those lane reflectors). Seemingly out of nowhere pops up a dead, stalled out, old ###, paint faded, no rear tail light reflector havin, VW Bug ... about 75 feet infront of me. I was paying attention, wasnt tired, was just a fluke, the car had nothing reflective on it.

I propably cleard that car by maybe a foot, and got back ahold of the truck before creaming the guard rail "protecting" the median (after crossing 2 lanes of travel to correct the abrupt swerve). Was paying more attention to keepin the rubber on the road than looking into the mirror to see how much air was under my trailer tandems, let alone the tractor.

Got on the horn to warn other drivers, called hwy patrol, and flipped around to check if I whacked the car with my trailer (pos company trailers have been so beat up its hard to find new damage )

The owner of the car (an anciently old stoner) was still sittin in it. Atleast, he was nice when he asked me if I was the one that almost killed him. I reached in and flipped on his 4 ways and left before I lost my temper.

We've all had our share of close calls, and we will all continue to have them. Even the safest driver in the world has to share the road with the unsafest driver in the world.

 

It was on a pitch black portion of I-84 East in Connecticut. A pick up truck had blown by me. I was in the right lane and he was in the center. I never saw it until it almost went through the windshield. The driver had one of those heavy plastic pick up truck bed liners come flying up and out at 80mph. I didn't see it leave the truck but I noticed a dark shadow falling from the sky directly in front of me It must have gotten as high as 60 feet in the air because I had enough time to identify it as it was heading towards my windshield. I bailed for the shoulder and the guy behind me ran it over destroying his grill.

 

Driving from Frendly, WV to Wheeling to pick up I70. Sunny day and I've got 72K gross. I had picked up aluminum ingots from Friendly and was convoying with two other Swifties up to Buffalo, NY (I was the leader). We were north of Friendly on some skinny road (WV-3, I think) and coming down a slight hill and round a curve. There's a bridge ahead which the sign says is narrow and limited to one truck. About 200' from the bridge, a gas tanker appears coming the other way and HE'S about 200' from the bridge too!! OH ----!!! No time to hit the brakes and even if I did, I'd have 2 other Swifties up my rear end, so I'm hoping he'll slow/stop. He doesn't. We passed on the bridge at about 45mph and I know I left rubber marks on the side on my side. I swear you couldn't have gotten a piece of paper between us as we passed. The guy behind me got on the CB and informed me how close we were to swapping paint.

Took me 25 min to get the driver's set outta my rear end when we got to the TA on 70!