Stuck

Had someone ask a while back about when do they lose the ROOKIE status.

Some goofball decides that he wants to drive a truck. He makes the morning commute in a big city everyday and so thinks that makes him a decent driver. In fact, he even drove the 300 mile trek to Grandmas without getting tired. Wow, he must be made to be a trucker! Watch out trucking industry, your Messiah is in trucking school!

Thing is, they drive a big rig wth that same stupid 4wheeler mentality that their non driving parents taught them. For example, 4 wheelers travel in clusters. Dont know why, my guess is it's a combination of the crab mentality/safety in numbers/not really paying attention to what's going on up ahead I will follow the tailights in front of me technique. In bad weather, they run in even tighter clusters, side by side even, with their hazards on. Dumbest thing you ever see on the highway.

You see the bottom feeders do it too. In bad weather, they run in a cluster of trucks. Guess what OP was doing? He was following the tailights of the truck in front of him. You were following WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too close! Rookie move there, amigo. You were depending on the tailights of the truck in front of you to brake.

If you were at a safe following distance, you would have seen the hazard he seen at the same time he did. You would have braked at the same time. You would have had time to get a way out.

 

Triple Six just said the magic words. "A WAY OUT". Always leave yourself a way out. And if that's 24 seconds, then that's a good way out.

 

You screwed up and that is on you. Bad road conditions aren't a free pass to hit stuff. Try running colorado 139 from fruita up to rangely in the winter on snow and ice. I did last week. It was a mess, I lost traction up hill but got down the other side without hitting anyone or any thing. Funny how that works when you maintain safe speed and following distance.

 

Yep we're all just terrible.Dam that icey road and that semi I rearended.Its his fault not mine.I did nothing wrong,just driving and minding my own business then all of a sudden that semi stopped.Stupid driver,its all his fault..England fired me for no reason I blame them too for what happened.Does that about sum it up as to your feelings on what happened?

 

Some of you cats are going a little too hard on the rookie. Yes he messed up. Yes he didn't take credit, but if everyone of us. Would of hit a patch a black ice when we didn't have that super long following distance. Then we would of been in the same predicament. When the road turns the crap. AN OBJECT IN MOTION WILL STAY IN MOTION UNTIL IT TAGS SOMETHING OR you SLIDE TO A PLACE WHERE THERE IS TRACTION. You don't drive on ice you SLIDE. Just because we have managed to make it years without putting one in the ditch doesn't mean tomorrow won't be the day. Count your blessings because even when you are doing everything right. You have some cat 5 foot off your bumper to push you down the road, or somebody beside you to take the paint off some part of your tractor or trailer.

 

Well Gutterless. In your esteemed opinion if 24 seconds is "way too much" then what would have been the right distance to prevent you from rear ending someone under the circumstances that you were in?

 

I don't believe I agree with you here Dinomite, about people being a little to hard on the OP. I say that, not because of him screwing up and having an accident. I say that because of his attitude in his posts. This is a kid that needs to grow up, and fast.

He seems to think he is destined to be a truck driver, but as things stand right now, the biggest obstacle to that is his own attitude. And that is why everyone, or at least a bunch, have come down on him. He is not mature enough to realize that he screwed up, nor is he man enough to take responsibility for his mistakes. I'm betting that it is his way of doing things in every facet of his life. I lost all sympathy I might have had for him, because of his attitude.

 

I think that hits the nail on the head

 

"It wasnt me..it was like that when I got here".......homer simpson

Gotta know when it time to fess up and when its time to cover up...hindsight is 20/20.

The guy u hit that u said it was his fault for leaving the scene....was probably some 20yr experienced guy who was doing you a solid by leaving so you didnt loose your job.....but............to late...

 

If he had hit the patch of ice, the truck in front of him had to have hit the brakes on the same patch, right? The other truck stopped in time. What does that mean?


Theres only 1 excuse that would work to shift the blame off the rookie. Only 1. The other truck would have to had defective brake lights.


If he had come clean like the Don said, the stone throwing wouldn't have taken place. In fact, I believe that the Safetyman wouldn't have fired him for his first offense if he had told them he goofed. When safety calls you in after a preventable, they ask you questions to see if you know where you messed up,because that's usually an indication that you can probably avoid that pitfall the next time. If they get the feeling that you will do the same goof again, they're more likely to can you.