Right Of Way Question

That’s IF there’s anything that can be reasonably done to prevent an accident. As far as merging traffic goes if I’m traveling on an interstate highway and there’s traffic merging onto the highway if I can’t safely move over to let traffic merge or safely reduce speed then by law I will MAINTAIN MY LANE ,because by law the merging traffic is REQUIRED TO YIELD.

This is basic rules of the road stuff that is taught before you are issued a drivers license. People have forgotten these basic rules over the years,and getting even worse with this “me first” mentality!

 

Regardless of the technicalities. Its always in yiur best interest to treat any merge point as a 50/50 propistion. If you fail to back off for someone merging just because u have right of way.. You will still hold some liability in the accident...

 

Just remember, the TEXAS HAMMER will be coming for your logbook for the past 150 years to prove you shouldn't have been there and is suing you for a Gazillion dollars.
Is it worth the aggravation and stress that can be avoided if you just back off for a few seconds.

 

Yes, the merging traffic is required to yield, by law. But a CDL driver is held to an additional standard, a standard that is above the law- Prevent an Accident.

A CDL driver's mindset must be to prevent an accident, regardless of what the law is.

Sure, many times it is impossible to move over. But it is ALWAYS possible to slow down, correct?

 

Yes, exactly.

A CDL driver will always be required to show they tried to prevent an accident or show there was nothing they could do to prevent an accident.

A CDL driver is always presumed guilty when they are involved in an accident, and will always be required to prove their innocence in any accident situation

 

Not always.
Especially if you’re under a heavy payload or hauling hazmat.
Whatever happens,you maintain your lane,you certainly don’t swerve. Again,this is one of the reasons why companies like mine are putting dashcams in trucks,to reduce the amount of false claims in case someone decides to get an ambulance chasing lawyer and video shows what really happened. And in the majority of cases(at least with my employer anyway) it has reduced the “guilty until proven innocent” mentality.

 

One of the most common problems with drivers today is they are not aware of either their surroundings which means they are being steering wheel holders and the other is they are not judging the speed of the car that is getting on the freeway.

Yesterday I had a driver who was in the right lane going about 65. I am four car lengths from his rear doing 75. We are passing an on ramp with two vehicles on it, one is too far back but the other will come in right behind him.

the ramp is also a long merge ramp, at least 1000 feet so the cars can adjust their speed accordingly.

Now this driver doesn’t even look to see what is coming in the left lane, he doesn’t see the long on ramp merge lane, he just discovers that there is a car on the on ramp and turns on his turn signal, doesn’t look at what is in the lane and moves over very fast.

I swerve and slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting the guard rail because at this time I am mid-point of his trailer when he made the move, I avoided another accident for the day. Earlier had the same thing happen to me with a driver who wanted to get into the center lane, he just turned on the turn signal and got over while I was in the lane.

my point is this, yes the truck driver is supposed to be in the accident prevention business but most, I mean most don’t pay enough attention to what’s going on around them. Many think that the other cars will move out of their way and don’t get that those merging don’t have right away, but will take chances to prevent one accident by possibly causing another. Many times I see truck do lane changes without checking the lane, or seeing the car is going 10 to 15 miles faster than they are.

There is also a liability involved, dash cams are great to show this. If I got into an accident from the driver who ran me off the road, the cops would end up going after the driver for causing the accident and leave the scene. On top of the litigation because of the accident.

I sent the dash cam video to the drivers company after talking to the safety manager over there, I’m letting him to deal with it.

 

A lot of these merging issues would be non issues if people would just increase their following distance slightly and not be on everyone’s ###. I was following a set of trains thru a construction zone yesterday. Guy was riding up a box van that was doing the speed limit and no way he would be able to stop in time with only 1 car length between them. Much less have room for a merging car.

As already stated. Looking ahead, anticipating what could happen or what needs happen a mile or two up the road is all part of the responsibility of being a professional commercial truck diver.

 

Really?? How on earth did you manage to pass your CDL written test with an attitude like that? We are (or were) the PROFESSIONALS on the highway, and as such, at least SOME 4-wheelers expect us to know the 'finer points' of driving! Congratulations; I'm nominating you for the award of "Steering Wheel Holder Of The Month".....