Need Opinions on this driver (video).

My opinion of this driver is about the same as any other driver that tapes his/her journeys.



I'll just leave it at that.

 

That driver is an idiot...no arguing that (just a poor attitude)

But about his speed...Lots of drivers are scared in heavy rain, too scared...Just a few months ago on I40 just west of West Memphis, AR there was a pretty bad storm. Very heavy rain, 60-70 mph wind, it was night...I was moving along at about 50 mph, in the left lane and I caught up with another truck that finally just STOPPED...right there in the fast lane.

I got on the ole CB and asked what was going on (nicely)...and he said "I can't see anything..."

Well, for some folks at night, in the rain...that is understandable...but you don't stop in the middle of the interstate because of it. I went around him and cruised on down the road...it was a bad storm, blew several trucks over in the median even...but you don't just stop in the middle of the road like that!

I expect stupid moves from 4 wheelers...but we are supposed to be professionals, capable of making good decisions.

In weather like is in the video...you could usually find me in the left lane too when I was pulling a flat bed...now that I'm back in heavy haul...you'll find me parked somewhere until the storm is over. (permits are invalid during that kind of weather)

 

its a wonder someone didnt find that driver somewhere down the road.... layin on his side.... im a young driver but if i drove like that id kick my own #####

 

I'm from the Northwest. Rain and high winds are no strangers to me. Ice and snow are no strangers. Ice is different in the Northwest. More slippery. Partly because of general ambient conditions and partly because our DOTs do not use salt. They use sand instead. Which is one reason I would prefer to drive upper midwest in winter if I have to drive in ice and snow.

All of that said, even with my familiarity with these conditions and confidence in my equipment and abilities, I do not lose respect for weather events. I will probably be one of the left lane gang in rain and wind. It's just water to me. However, I will not blow past other drivers at twice their speed. I may go 10 mph faster, but that would be about it. I can't think of any good reason to blast by and scare the crap out of people who are already white-knuckling their steering wheels. That would mean four-wheelers and novice big-truck truckers alike.

I know how it felt my first winter out, in Upstate New York in my first whiteout. Northwest snow is usually too wet and heavy to cause a whiteout without extremely high road closure winds. That whiteout had me scared. I was the one creeping along at 15mph. Then there was the thundersnow storm I got in the middle of in Illinois. I never knew such a thing existed. Again, 15mph behind everyone else in the granny lane, to the first safe parking area. And watch the beautiful, incredible storm for most of the night.

Point is, I know how it feels to be suddenly in a situation that scares me, no way to get out of it until I reach the next exit and people with either more "confidence" than me or who are just plain ol' cowboy-courage, not-a-lick-of-sense dummies fly past me at dry highway speed cussing because of all the rest of us in the granny lane. Some would say he or she knows how to drive in it. I would say they are foolish regardless of experience level.

There is a variable they are not considering in a situation like that: other drivers. Other drivers who may be prone to make mistakes. In a crash, it may be determined the other driver was at fault, but deep down within the faster driver's self, the knowledge is there that it could have been prevented and that he or she shares some of the responsibility. I don't want to be that driver.

 

Describing the left lane driver as "flying down the road" is subjective.
Similar to the law I heard exists in Ohio,where LEO can ticket someone for appearing to be speeding.
Left lane driver may or may not have been going to fast for conditions,but right lane driver (1) attempted to change lanes without signalling,and/or (2) did not look in his mirrors before attempting to change lanes.
Right lane driver prevented what could have been a serious accident, had he not swerved back in the right lane, but to my mind,the accident which he prevented,was an accident that he would have caused,by not 1) signalling his intention to change lanes,&/or (2) checking his mirror. I would not give him any 'points' for preventing an accident.


Concerning profanity, the second driver only gave back what he got.
First driver described second driver as the performer of a certain act,and second driver replied by telling first driver to perform said act.
If the first driver can be 'excused' for using such language in the first place,then second driver can be 'excused' for using similar language in response to being insulted.Yet only one is a cause for embarrassment? And for what its worth,the driver who used profanity first sounded like an older person,you know,not one of the 'new breed' or one from the ill-mannered younger generation,and he doesn't sound like a nationally known comedian. His stress level may have been to be too way too high. Maybe he was on a tight schedule and falling behind.

 

A question.
At an intersection in a 35mph zone,driver (a) "blows" through his green light at 45mph,while driver (b) carefully runs his red light at 25mph,who do you blame or blame more for the resulting accident?

And it looks to me like the truck in the right lane did more than "seem" to try a lane change without warning. That truck DID try to change lanes without warning.

 

And had the slower driver been leaving him or herself enough time and space to react to whatever he or she was trying to avoid,then it is likely that he or she would not have had to swerve into the adjacent lane without (1) signalling or (2) presumably checking his or her mirror.
As slowly as that truck was going,the driver should have been able to see something ahead,and have enough time to at least check his/her mirrors before attempting to change lanes.
It can be argued that as slow as the driver in the right lane was going,he still was going to fast,hence the need to perform a risky move of changing lanes without (1) signalling,and/or (2) looking in his/her mirror.
Not very professional in my opinion.
Maybe the slower moving driver deserves as much as ,or at least some condemnation, as the driver in the left lane,instead of the commendation which seems to be going to him/her.

 

10 mph faster than others,instead of twice their speed might still be too fast, and you could still appear to be one of the people you describe in the second of your quoted paragraphs.

 

If the speed limit is 55 mph, but traffic is only moving at 25 mph, I was always taught that the safe speed is the speed traffic is moving at, in this case, the slower speed. It is not safe to do 55 mph if traffic is moving at 25 mph, especially in those conditions.