The trucker's obsession with mirrors

Its called the 10 second head bob. If you are in the habit of checking your mirrors and what is around you. You will be more aware of the traffic. It is also a antifatigue habit. Helps keep you alert.

You might think its a waste of time, yet it isnt. Get in the habit. What was the color of the last vehicle you saw? Was it going into the blind spot on your right? Can you move to the right safely? Did that vehicle on the right get ignored because you thought the head bob was a waste of time? What is the value of a life if you drive over some one because you felt it wasnt needed to see what was around you?

 

And ask yourself where in hell did that granny in the old Malibu run off to? (The one that was merging onto 495 next to you.)

When I had to ask myself that question I was already moving over to taking her out with my steer. Check under your own wheels first. She got a new car out of it when it was all over 6 months later.

A simple question, needing a simple answer. Boss man installed a special mirror above the pax window of my cabover to help me resolve that in the future seeing that most of the NE work I did up there was sitting in traffic or asserting myself around children in their cars who just cannot stand to have me around with my big slow truck in a City full of thousands of same.

I don't know why 10 million people choose to life that stressful. They should come out to the tidewater and live very quietly. Traffic would be college break annually.

 

The reason you need to regularly check your mirrors is that when you are going 65 and a 4-wheeler is coming up behind you at 85, they will change from a little dot in your mirror to blowing your doors off in just a few seconds.

Another situation is when a 4-wheeler starts drafting you. If you are watching behind yourself regularly you can see them if they pop out to look around you, or you might see the shadow of their vehicle behind your trailer's shadow.

You need to know where the vehicles around you are at all times, so you have a chance to respond to something on the road without killing someone.

I will not try to say that I always watch my mirrors as diligently as I should, but after 4 years, I rarely get surprised by speeders or tailgaters. I tend to watch mirrors in my peripheral vision even when I am not shifting my attention to them as often as I should.

 

So I gather you've been driving for a time or two. Just check and double check every time you turn the wheel and all should be kosher. Rock on.

 

The other day I was traveling on i80 and had a lady come off an on ramp at 50mph she crossed the far right lane into my lane.
If I would not have jerked into the left lane she would have possibly been killed.
I was able to avoid it because I knew my left side was clear at that moment.

 

Once while everything was on the floor pouring smoke from all locked wheels waiting to see if I can clear the mirror, literally get rid of the 4 cars on my left fast enough to get the eff over. There were three kids noses on the back window plus mommy and daddy in a jimmy ahead of me. Trapped and stalled out in a construction with 8 foot walls.

Mr Mirror says alls clear left just under 32 and falling about oh... 30 feet from impact that will kill the 5 in that jimmy. I horsed her over.

Revealed in the right mirror a law enforcement with his nose on the roadway pouring smoke from his locked tires trying to stop faster than me. As soon as he got eyeballs full of what was in front, he really had to stop. I think he did.

This was in Akron Oh about 1994. I checked the papers and news that day and after for indications of deaths or injury on that stretch of interstate. Didnt hear anything and must assume they got rescued from there. Its a horrible spot, a deadly spot to be sure.

My company yelled really bad at me when they saw what I did to that truck. I simply told them be quiet and save the noise. There are 5 people in a family unit that are still alive today and not for your company to worry about deaths instead.

I thought they would fire me. But eyes up and mirrors solved the really bad presentation that day when it was revealed to me. And I had a van trailer completely loaded to the nuts at just a little over 41 ton. That was a minor problem compared to the manslaughter times 5 counts if I ran out of room for not keeping eyes up and mirrors clear.

Over and over and over in my entire lifetime Mr Mirror had something to show me that there is a problem and its time to solve it fast.

 

A most excellent reply. As one who drives chiefly in California, I am always on the lookout for myriad of lunatics on the roads.

As a consequence of living in today's me, me, me, society, folks are far less courteous and more aggressive than ever before. I can't drive more than one or two hours in California before some numbnuts is speeding up to pass me only to cut me off and exit immediately.

So, if I weren't watching my mirrors, I would have no idea one of these butt clowns was going to pull this maneuver.

What's more is that I've even had police pull this maneuver. Police!

Another glorious thing about California is that lane-splitting is legal for motorcycles. These fools on crotch rockets have a death wish for sure.

Why have someone smack into you when you could just move aside? But you won't know to move aside if you aren't looking into your mirrors.

 

I wish they were just going 85.

 

Obsession?
WTF is going on in your head?
You don't like old people with millions of miles of experience sharing valuable information and telling it like it is?

Mirrors are maybe "the most important thing" in your life as a trucker and it's really really really important you know how to use them, which means constantly!

I sure hope you're not considering flat deck, OD, heavy haul, reefers or doubles in the future, because you're already destined to fail!

 

Very few men actually learn to be safe from listening to others. It takes an oh-shiiiit moment to make safety make sense to them.

My experience is that women will more often act safely than men without an accident or close call to force a lesson.

Hopefully this fellow will learn without injuring anyone, if they are one of the majority that can't learn just from advice.