Why you don't stop on the shoulder!

Hell, I blew my steer tire not long ago, sidewall blew out, but still holding air, I pulled off, on the next exit, thank God the truck stop was right there! A dual blows, I am not stopping until I can get to a safe spot like a rest area or truck stop. In some cases, the shipper or receiver. We can fix it there in the parking lot. Been there, and done that. No reason to park on the shoulder for one blown tire on a set of duals. Find a get off ramp to inspect and carry on!

 

If you look at traffic it sometimes moves fast in packs and the first one screws up and they all pile on.

 

This guy worked for us. The cab was was broken free from the frame.I was told he walked away from this accident.

 

Sad, but true story. Back in the day when I was running a dumper, we had a job that we kept dumping loads where ever the job boss needed them. One driver did not have a cb, so one driver flagged him down to let him know where to go. When the driver without a cb stopped, the shoulder crapped out and the truck tripped over in the ditch. Bad thing.
A couple of minutes later, another driver saw the truck in the ditch and stopped to see if anyone needed help. Yup. Shoulder crapped out and now there are two dumpers in the ditch, on their sides, with most of the load dumped. Hilarious! Turns out, one of the drivers was the boss's nephew! PRICELESS.

 

Had a buddy that drove for TNI that took a hit from a truck going highway speeds. Really messed him up. The back injuries ended his career.

I posted about coming through WythvilleVA one night and how there were hundreds of trucks parked on the shoulder because they ran out of hours waiting for a hazmat spill to be cleaned up. Theres not a lot of parking in that area anyway, and because of that spill, every exit ramp, every entrance ramp, every parking lot was filled.for 40 miles and hundreds of drivers had nowhere to go and they shut down on the shoulders. How in the hell could anyone sleep with their head 3 ft away from the interstate travel?

I know there are many here that think that’s a sign of bad planning and whatever and that people that don’t think the regs are safe are wanting to cheat and break the law, but that’s not necessarily true. It is NOT safe. The goobermint had to make an allotment for my guys because we couldn’t physically find places to pull over for the 30 minute break. I’m not saying elogs are the problem. I am saying that elogs WITH the current HOS cause an unsafe condition when there is a problem. I’ve seen the trucks stopped on the shoulder every time there’s a big accident and the interstate gets shut down. Road gets opened and there’s nowhere to go. The only time any truck should be stopped on the side of the highway is if he lost part of his drive train. Never because of the HOS. Period.

 

If you've got a flat and there isn't an exit in a mile or two, pull on the shoulder and set up the triangles. Flinging tire debris can kill innocent people, parked trucks kill stupid ones.

If you turn around, its 8 feet away!

 

While texting...

 

Sadly most don't understand this simple concept.. HOS is the problem.. They are not SAFE.

Safe or Legal.. Pick one.. Since most of us choose to stay LEGAL, often at the price of SAFETY. Waking up at 2am because you shut down early to make the appointment early, when you could've SAFELY driven there the night before and gotten there on time.. But you 11/14 or whatever other BS didn't ALLOW you to do so..

I'd advocate for a removal of HOS now that we have accountibility due to the ELOGS.. Or at least heavily loosen them. We should be able to drive/work how we deem safe.. After all we are "professionals". Will there be accidents and deaths? Yes.. They're still happening now as well..

 

They're kind of like the joke about the intelligence of some bulldogs.

Got that flat nose from chasing parked cars.

Now I'll have to duck the flak from the bulldog lovers out here. LOL