Do You Tailgate?

Wow three pages of this.....amazing no one has come up with the right answer yet....unless you are supposed to tailgate the freight you let the dock workers take it off the trailer...........






sorry couldn't help myself.....tailgating cars or trucks is NEVER a good thing and ends up with people in the hospital alot of times or the morgue....this is part of the reason why lane restrictions are a bad thing......when I'm going thru a city I try like hell to stay out of the far right lane AND obey the speed limit......Atlanta comes to mind .....but us trucks can't be in the far left to avoid all the backups that happen at the on and off ramps......tailgating happens alot there and in places like Nashville and invariably there always seems to be an accident......whose fault is it ...the person that rear ended the other vehicle....

 

I have never been a big one to tailgate myself. More so now that I'm driving a tri-axle. I have just as much weight as a tractor tailer with one less set of brakes to stop. The one thing that gets me is when I am in the hammer lane coming up on a four wheeler in the right lane that decides to pass the vehicle in front of him just as I'm about even with his bumper. Now being that I am the professional, I am already anticipating that they are going to do this, but it still puts me into a situation that if they mess up I have no where to go. It seems when they pull out they are in a big hurry but then take forever to complete their pass.

 

In heavy traffic on the freeways in the big city's under 30 or 40 or 20 mph it may be hard to avoid even when laying way back. The four wheelers will jump in front of you over and over and over again, you will catch your self at times just to close and having to keep readjusting to the heavy flow of traffic. Not saying its anyone's idea it Just happens some times, and if your a tanker truck driver it gets even tougher, that's why you see more of us old guys driving the tankers and not so many young ones. Tailgating is wrong but at times it can sneak up on you, or is that the other way around. Safety comes first even if you hate your job!!. Peace out.

 

For one big rig to tailgate another big rig is especially dangerous, because the one behind cant see anything like a wreck, slow moving car, or stop lights or any thing in front of them period that may cause the truck in front to have to stop fast. Trucks who tailgate me scare the bajesus out of me, and it one thing I never do, scares the heck out of me when I get to close to the truck in front because I dont have a clue whats in front of him, or when he may have to slow down really fast or change lanes fast to avoid a wreck. What happened below is 100% true and I did when I was just starting to drive 18 wheeler on my own. Looking back on it, realize the damage i could have caused, possibly putting me in prison. Is something I would never do or even think about doing again.

True storie. Aint going to say where this happened........... Another big rig was tailgating me forever, maby 10 feet off my dot bumper right there. Couple hours on a 4 lane with almost zero traffic. Going up a pass in the third slow climbing lane than back up to speed ets. Shoot threw this little town take the split from one highway to another, drop it down to 55mph to be legal top of the overpass on dry roads, there is a little car at a stop dead center of the right lane I was in. Waited till the last second then jambed my rig over into the hammer lane just before impact, I cleared the car felt trailer and rig tipping, didnt, looked back all I saw was bunch of smoke and his rig jackknifing beside the car then I couldnt see anymore. I jumped on the throttle hard and just kept running. Never saw him in my reaview, or at the truck stop I stopped at for the night a few hours down the road. Couldnt get him on CB eather. I checked local newspaper online for that town every day for next few days didnt see any articles about it, so assume nobody got hurt but that is one big rig who will probably never tailgate another big rig again.

 

Story above made me remember a run I made through Louisiana last summer,I was drivin on I-10 eastbound,very well aware of this being one of the country"s deadliest Interstates..,all looked well,and I noticed some ways ahead a 4-wheeler smokin under the hood,& he pulled over.For some reason,(gut feeling)I slowed to 40-45 mph,and between watching the 4-wheeler ahead and glancing in my mirrors,I noticed a big truck on my #ss after I slowed down.....Almost on the 4-wheeler that pulled over,almost there,& ######,the DUMb sob pulls right out in front of me,I locked up,and waited for impact from the behind from the big truck...-which never came..,as although I couldn't"t bounce into the "hammer",I found out later the truck behind me could as after that car went by,none were behind him..... After the laying of the air horn to the four wheeler,flippin him off and screaming at him was over,(about 15 seconds)I got on the C.B. to talk to the truck behind me,and HE was shook up,explaining to me he blindly swerved into the hammer lane without even looking after he saw I locked em up,and swore to me he would never tailgate again..Really people,if your gonna tailgate,you ARE an IDIOT,and I really do not understand this thread at all. DRINKING & DRIVING would make just as much sense.......

 

He said he couldn't change lanes and with someone on my butt, the last thing I want to do is make a quick stop to the shoulder.

This happens alot and that driver said he will never tailgate again. For some it takes an event to learn.

 

Now I'm confused. Part of the reason they do what -- tailgate? Why would they want me to cut off another driver?

 

I watched a Hirschbach driver tailgate a 4-wheeler through part of I-40 in NC through the river gorge today. It's a gorgeous drive..too bad I was too busy watching them to see if I was going to have to slow down suddenly for a wreck. Like seriously he was right on their tail. I guess he was a bit of a hot head because further up the road he flipped the bird to another truck driver who got on the radio and said something about it.

He must have been having a bad day or something. Still no excuse for it. Tailgating is bad and tends to scare 4-wheelers. They're already skittish enough on their own, let's not give them another reason to be.

 

First of all 2 wrongs don't make a right. Tailgating is wrong, dangerous and is a public relations nightmare for the whole trucking industry. I know how frustrating it is when you are trying to make an on time pickup or delivery and you find you are sharing the road with some nitwit in a 4 wheeler. But getting close up on their rear don't get you to that shipper or receiver any earlier and at worse if you were to happen to hit that nitwit, your going to be late, your going to be charged with a preventable accident and your going to cost your company some major bucks depending on the situation. In the age of CSA 2010 I think its career suicide to tailgate. You just can't defend this driving practice with the excuse you are sharing the roads with nitwits, actually its not defensible no matter how you present your argument.