Question...

I was on that section of 54 in TX earlier today. Best thing governed trucks can do to make passing safer for faster trucks is stay next to the fog line so the guy behind can see around you and let off it when he comes out to pass. Heaven forfend the faster driver should actually answer his radio when hailed by the slower truck...to coordinate the passing maneuver. It might mean he would have to say "thank-you." Can't have that, now can we? Regardles of their poor manners, I did everything possible to make it safer for them to pass. I just didn't feel like going 65. No skin off my &** if they want past.

 

I'm not leaving the road on intentionally for anyone, It is my primary job in that situation to keep the damage as localized as possible and not turn a probable two vehicle collision into a major nightmare by trying to put my truck someplace where it was never intended to be. I will be as prepared as possible for anything that might arise and I'll already know where oncoming traffic is and also following traffic but somethings just become unavoidable at some point.
If someone has to pay for poor judgement with their life/limb....let it be the one with the poor judgement.

Keep it on the road (if possible)

Keep it straight (if possible)

Keep it upright (if possible)

That gives you a much better chance of avoiding injury or death to innocents that might not be otherwise involved.

 

Boy this has been a heated hot topic in the past! NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER swerve to miss anything unless it is another big rig! If you swerve and roll over you are going to do a hell of a lot more damage and possibly hurt a hell of a lot more people including yourself! Once you commit to swerving you no longer have control of that truck and you are in Gods hands! You may swerve to miss some drunk jack-hole that cut you off and now you are on your side sliding down the interstate, through the median and into the path of an on coming school bus full of kids!

Did I mention don't SWERVE!!!

 

You have to try and maintain control in your split second decision. If you gonna hit, your choices are limited. The only thing I can say is try to avoid a rollover because if you swerve right hard enough, the car will clear but you will lay her down on top of them. Try to avoid a direct driver door impact and go for a reverse pit manuever hitting the back door/trunk area. You gonna hit, you're gonna hit. Try to do it in a manner that minimizes death.

Now if it was an opposite direction head on decision, it gets trickier as you can't read the other persons mind. You can say oh #### and lock em down! Or you can try to take advasive action. In that case, my main concern is to get my cab out of the path even if it meant a rollover. They are dead anyways, I'm gonna save myself if I can. You can swerve right to get perpendicular even if it means going off the road. You can swerve left and try to go inside them. But then you might involve an innocent party. Most likely I'm going right.

Even though each situation is unpredictable, you can imbed a game plan into your head so you do make the best quick decision. It's good to think about it. Nobody is exempt from a wreck no matter how good you are. Sometimes it's unavoidable and a crash is inevitable. But maybe you can do something to minimize life and limb with how you hit them.

 

I had this happen to me....I had my eye on the guy and he pulled out in front of me, so I moved over to the left lane, as it was a 4 lane divided highway. He went to the left lane, so I steered back to the right lane to avoid hitting his dumb ##### rearend, and he sped off.

I was pulling a tanker full of milk, and I didn't spill the milk, but that a hole sure pissed me off....I reached for the horn as he pulled away...., that Peterbilt could change lanes pretty #### fast...I did not have time to hit the brakes and knew it wouldn't do any good anyway with 45,000 pounds of milk on board, and I did not want to see what would happen with full brakes and turning at the same time....could have been one hell of a skid.

Now I have my hand on the horn and will give a warning toot, so as to warn some dimwit to not pull out in front of a 80,000 truck.