Following distance!

I hope this drives home a point for you new drivers and/or students out there.

Today I was heading east on I-10 through El Paso TX. Traffic was starting to pick up but still moving at a decent pace so I backed down my speed a bit and increased my visual scans. I had moved to the center lane earlier because of all the traffic merging onto and off the interstate.

Suddenly there was a problem a few cars up ahead and people were hitting their brakes. I had enough room in front of me to where I could easily slow down without a problem or worry. However, the semi to my left, in the hammer lane, was not as fortunate. Since he was tailgating, I watched as he tried to slow down as much as he could but traffic was stopping faster than he could. He had no choice but take it to the shoulder on the median. As he's trying to slow down and maintain control of his vehicle, he hits the front left side of the car that was in front of him. (well, from what I could tell but there was impact between the truck and the car).

The sad thing is, the driver of that semi either didn't know he just hit that 4-wheeler or didn't care. He pulled back onto the interstate and was about to continue on down the interstate. The 4-wheeler had other plans and continued to follow next to the truck, honking his horn and motioning to the truck that he needed to pull over and stop.

The big truck finally got the clue he needed to stop and pulled it onto the shoulder near the Inspection area. What happened after that, I have no idea.

..and it wasn't a Swift, Werner, JB Hunt or any of the major carriers.

Pay attention to your surroundings in heavy traffic.

As for why everyone was slowing down. That I have no idea. The only clue I saw was a tire bouncing down the road, slowly bouncing off to the right shoulder and coming to rest along the guard rail.

 

Do you ever find yourself keeping up with a bus in the next lane because you want to watch the movie they're watching?