need some help/advice

if your trainer added 30 hours of training time & no citation by officer then you just do what you are doing and not let it ruffle (you) .....

this is why I did not drive for decades ~ now going back due to what shale oil is paying - I always have a hyper-alert status, even when sleeping, due to too many of stuff like this though fortunately this did not happen to me

just keep going - steady .....

 

Look, you will learn with time, you will have to balance whaching your front to make sure you are clear thrue the turn while watching the mirror to see if someone cuts in. You gotta remember 4 wheelers rarly if ever look at signs on the back of your truck. All they care about is that your slowing them down and they dont want to wait on you. Stay closer to the curb and pull out farther before cutting your turn. You got luckey with the cop, because most of the time IT IS YOUR FAULT. right, wrong, fair will not matter. In the eyes of most law enforcement its your fault. in the eyes of the motoring public you are big, slow, dangerous, evil, irresposable, take up to much room, you name it. That is not to say that there not a lot of very good and courteous 4 wheel driver out there, most of them are. but you need to cultivate the attitude that every other vehicle on the road is trying to commit suicide with your truck, then you will have the proper defensive driving technich. Take your lumps, it's a learning experience, and be happy that you did not get point's, a ticket, fine, and lose your job.
just sayin, ya know?
be safe
b

 

When you have to swing out to make the right turn, remember that trailer does actually follow that truck. Time your swing out so that you can take half of each lane with the tractor before the intersection. Keep the tail of the trailer blocking that inside lane, once the turn is started, your tractor and front of trailer will be blocking the path and no 4 wheeler (except a suicide 2 wheeler) will try for the inside track.

You need to learn how to depend on those fender mirrors...greatest thing about that passenger side fender mirror, it pretty much eliminates any blind spot on that side. Get used to using that mirror on those right turns, no curbing, no street signs, and pedestrians waiting to use the cross walk will get out of your view!

 

100% indeed. The front mirror's get rid of all blind spots on a flatbed, never pulled a van... so you'd know more about than me. Unless a curtain counts as a van trailer.

 

I would agree that it could have been preventable on your part and the other driver but you are a professional driver that needs to remember people are stupid and in a hurry. Lesson learned 30 hours is not a big deal because you now know first hand that people will run up your blind side if you give them the opportunity. In the real world you sometimes need to be more aggressive with your driving and make decisions for the 4 wheelers out there that have no idea what is going on in our world. It is our job to be the responsible and professional drivers because most people out there have no clue what it takes to drive a big rig. I had a moron do the same thing to me just last week. Right hand turn onto a freeway on-ramp, only thing is I keep an eye on my fender mirrors and he was shooting up on the shoulder cutting around me and about 4 other cars. Sometimes you can't help these situations from occurring but you can be vigilant in doing mirror checks to keep an eye on the morons who seem to have a death wish.

 

The first thing you have to discard is the idea of not at fault. Trucking uses a higher standard and that is that of Preventable as they are telling you. You are responsible for yourself and all those around you. Some schools call this drive for five.

When you pull up to a place where you have to do a right hand turn and lots of idiots are trying to rush around you, set your truck up so that you completely block your underside. Put your tractor in the left lane and your trailer in the right lane. I do it. You might just save a life.

What really is important is that you immediately stop feeling sorry for yourself. You had an accident that while it was not your fault, us old heads would have avoided. Professional means higher standards.

 

Don't ever take for granted the person behind you knows how to read...or that driving thing sure gets in the way of my eating, smoking, drinking coffee and talking on the phone.

 

So you have never driven in a city proper? Like Chicago...

One right hand turn on a route of mine, I have to be in the left turn lane to make the right without the tandems riding up on the curb on my right. The local government has even put a nice yellow concrete filled steel post to let you know when you didn't make the turn...

To the OP:

In those type situations, sometimes you have to wait through 3 traffic light changes before you have the opportunity to make the maneuver. And always, always keep an eye on all the mirrors. Go as slow as you need to. Five or ten minutes to get around a single turn is still way better then getting called into the safety office for a consult.

Oh, and when traveling forward doing a right turn, the right side is not the blind side. Don't use that excuse at the meeting.

Mikeeee

 

Apparently your reading skills are limited>please read my second paragraph and then comment.