Truck driver swerved to avoid hitting a car on I-10. This was the result…

You is driving thru a small town, no other traffic around, cept for that one pickup coming toward you.
Beautiful sunny day.
Then a car blows a stop sign and turns right, right in front of you and stops dead in your lane.
Without signaling she turns left into her sisters driveway after the pickup passes.

 

You can anticipate anything till your eyes are blue, but to say you never had a hard brake either says your bullpooping us, or you haven't driven very long. Four wheelers are predictable and I do anticipate their moves around me.
But You will always have that one jack rabbit that you can't anticipate.


And if your backing of for 4 cars jumping into a six car spot, your probably the same container driver I saw on 95 this morning at a dead stop because he was being safe and keeping his distance from everyone. And the entire state of NJ jumping in front of him.

One step forward, two steps back get you nowhere fast.

 

And I rarely have to break hard as well do a fairly decent job anticipating actions of those in front, beside and behind me but every now it does happen as we can't read everyone's mind.

 

Good one, Tucker. We just never know. Every time we fire up our rigs and head out, we're doing risky business, dangerous business. I agree with the point of your example, even the best drivers can get in a situation where there's just no good way out.

I just got back from a Long Beach, CA delivery, followed by a Torrance, CA pickup? Drove across the whole dang city and the valleys beyond, up to Victorville and Barstow, crazy people driving every mile along the way. Cutting drivers off, short pullins, not allowing others to change lanes, insane lane changes, and forget about following distance, a thing not seen there in LA for some time. Turn everything off, both hands on the wheel, eyes front every second of every minute and still not really safe. No, we're doing good if we make it to our destinations without causing serious damage.
Even so, that truck and trailer hanging there wrecked on the bridge? I wasn't there, but it looks more like a preventable than not. I don't know, maybe not. Just glad no one paid the ultimate price for a mistake.

 

you dudes are brutal,Yea l get it people will cut you off,my point is you should always have enough space in front of you to stop and/or to not have to "swerve" .Now stop making up excuses and seniarios on why its not YOUR fault to operate and have complete control of you CMV at ALL times

 

In a perfect world, you're right. You SHOULD always have enough space in front of you that it should never be an issue. Problem is, it isn't a perfect world. People seem to be in a big hurry to get nowhere, and are more than willing to risk their neck to not get caught behind that rapidly approaching semi truck as they are attempting to pull off of a side street or out of a parking lot. A truck traveling 55 mph takes nearly 300 feet to stop...so when you are 150 feet from a side street when a car pulls up to a stop sign and 100 feet from the side street when they roll through the stop sign to get out before you go past...and then 1/2 a block later they are stopping to turn left....ain't a whole heck of a lot you could've done to prevent that situation from happening, and ain't a whole heck of a lot you can do about it other than stand on the brakes and hope you either get stopped or traffic clears allowing them to make their turn before you compress their trunk. These aren't "excuses", but real world scenarios that happen thousands of times per day all across the country. It is why I got a dash cam, so that if the day ever comes when I am unable to stop in time, I have indisputable evidence of what happened.

Just because you clobber somebody doesn't necessarily mean you weren't in control of your vehicle. It might just mean somebody placed themselves in a position where a crash was unavoidable due to the distance required to stop the truck you're driving. However, if you swerve to avoid them and turn yourself over in the ditch, you weren't in control of your vehicle.

I was involved in a crash a few years ago where a kid pulled away from a stop sign on a gravel road into the side of my trailer tires as I rolled past doing 55 mph down the highway. Not much I could've done, because he was stopped at the stop sign as I approached the intersection. How do you anticipate him pulling out like that? If he'd pulled out a second sooner, I would've t-boned him. 1/10 of a second later, and he wouldn't have touched me. People do stupid things behind the wheel, and I bear no responsibility for the actions of anyone other than myself. If somebody wants to place themselves in a position where I have to choose between hitting them or swerving into the ditch, I'm not going to put my truck in the ditch.

 

Well, ttyson, if you think you can keep a safe following distance all the time in LA, or any big city like Atlanta, Knoxville (not big but a very tough cluster) Chicago, so on, good luck to you. I don't think it's possible, since the cars and pickups don't feel the same way about it. They see, I guess, safe following distance as an opportunity. Like somebody once told me, "if you want to keep safe following distance out here, you're going to have to stop." Kind of true.

A lot of bad things happen in and around big trucks, but to me it's not always a fail on the drivers side. It seems to me that a lot of good drivers have bad experiences, but the truck is a big, visible target. I just focus, turn off electronic distractions, and do my best. So far, anyway. Like, road rage is not an option, but if I see a big rig 4' from some cars bumper, I wonder, "Yo, Dude, chill out a little." I see that, a lot, and hate it every time. It sounds like you think a perfect driver can and will avoid all problems, and I don't think that's possible, I'm saying.

I think Pedigreed made good comments. We are not alone out there. We don't control all the factors. I had a similar experience, driving thru Farmington, NM. 10:00pm, nobody on the 4 lane I was heading north on at about 45mph, two kids in a Focus drove thru a corner and right into my right side tandems. Their car was totalled, they were scared and bruised but OK, and I still can't think of a thing I could have done differently. I mean, if I was on my phone, any of that, maybe it would feel different. One of the many reasons we carry $1,000,000 liability insurance...stuff happens.

 

Good point about the dash cam. I do the same thing. If I'm at fault then I'll take the blame but you can't control those crazy 4 Wheeler NASCAR wannabes out there.

 

Yeah, you'd think the jaws of life would have worked faster.

 

As Ive stated many many times....no amount of readiness is foolproof and there are rare occasions--where you may have to do something drastic as a last resort.....BUT..patience..vigilance...and extreme awareness will keep you out of 99.5% of these situations...and Ive heard most (if not all) of the excuse's of why/how this can't be done--and sorry folks but I call BS on most all of em...
Yes today the trfx is worse than ever..yes most drivers(of all kinds)are preoccupied w/something else...and typically todays 4wheel drivers enter a multi lane hiway and race directly into the left lane and stay there until about 10yards from their exit and kamikazee to the ramp...
But IMHO--it's all part of a day's work....just one of the 8million reasons this job just really ain't no fun anymore....
Still as it has been for the 40+years Ive been out here...YOU can stay out of trouble....unfortunately to do so in today's entitled selfish driving society--I spend most days up on the wheel like it's a blizzard...but again alas imho--it is what has to be done....cuz in the end--one thing hasn't changed--and that is gettin thru each and every day w/out incident....