The trucker's obsession with mirrors

Plus you’ll notice the girl with her boobs hanging out before she passes you so you can look.

 

Situational awareness keeps you alert for a titillating experience.

Couldn't resist

 

Im not even gonna bother reading all this, but did anyone mention how you use your mirrors to see if your flippin brakes are smoking like the jackwad in the box truck I saw this morning? Just rollin along smoke pouring off his rr wheels.

 

I had another good example of a reason to scan mirrors regularly.

I noticed a small car closing in behind me two days ago. It was well past dark. They had absolutely no lights at all. No headlights. No running lights. No internal lights I could see. It was just a shadow on the road in my mirrors.

If I had not seen it when it was far enough behind me to be silhouetted by the lights of vehicles behind it, i might not have noticed it moving into position to draft and hide behind my trailer.

It took me few miles of alternately slowing to 55 MPH and turning my hazards on for a few seconds before they got it through their head that I was not going to let them draft me to keep cops from noticing they had no lights.

 

It's called Getting the Big Picture, Keep your eyes moving and Leaving yourself an out. Expect the unexpected. By scanning your mirrors you are seeing what direction you can go if some sort of emergency were to present itself. If there's a car on your right or left you know very well you will not cut them off if a mattress falls on the highway. You hit that #### mattress and pray it doesn't cause your truck too much damage then after hitting it look for a safe spot to pull over and check everything out. Again that was just an example of a hazard but understand you are a professional driver and are held to a much higher standard then the 4-wheelers with their Class C license.

 

This ^^^^^ the Smith system works!

 

@FozzyNOK maybe Op has 37 year of 4 wheeling experience.

 

Poor guy will never post again.

 

Even if they were not your fault - was there something you could have done to avoid/mitigate the accidents you were in if you were more aware of your surroundings?

I had a guy a few years ago with the same philosophy. The problem is that when a driver doesn't check his mirrors, he tends not to keep the vehicle centered in the lane and will often forget to check his mirrors at critcal times - ie you are looking for a parking space and don't watch the trailer as you enter the parking lot, which results in clipping the guy on the end.

This guy just didn't get the message, so I let him blindly follow the gps (another teachable moment) which was taking us on the short way - down one and a half lane roads in Arkansas where if you are not constantly watching your trailer, you WILL end up in the ditch.

After 2 hours of this we get back onto the US highway we had intended to follow. I didn't have to utter the words "watch your trailer" for the rest of the week and he was much better at reading road signs and seeing what traffic is ABOUT to do.

Mirror checks make you a better driver.

 

I do not like to follow someone too close, but them following or drafting me I never worried about, except for when I am in an area I have to be dodging pot holes and do not want one to pick the same moment I am dodging something to pass.