Writing a book where truckers save the hero -- can you help me get things right?

Hey there. Near the end of the book I'm writing, the good guy is chased by the baddies on the NJ Turnpike. A trucker he befriended earlier on in the book helps him out by calling his buddies and cutting off the bad guys so the hero can go do the thing that saves the world. Is this at all believable? Do truckers sometimes help each other out on the road with annoying 4-wheelers or such? How do they communicate to do that? (CB?) What would they do?

Thanks so much! I have learned a lot from this site and forum and I have a lot of respect for truckers so I want to make things believable...

 

It's an unrealistic scenario right from the start.

You'd have to have this driver and all his buddies in the same area.

They all would have nothing better to do... like deliver their loads.

they would have to be able to comunicate in whataever time frame you invent. Cb ain't gonna cut it. It would be difficult with cell phones.

All these rigs would have to be capable of maneuvering into place to form some sort of roadblock... that includes getting on the turnpike... negotiating traffic... passing other rigs... etc.

You'd have to do a lot of creative writing to make this work in any sort of real world way.

 

The only time I've ever had help with annoying 4-wheelers was when I was running with a good friend or someone from the same company.

 

Ha, FwL, point well taken… It's not the least bit realistic! But I'd like to incorporate as many real-life details as possible, so as to make it more believable to a fiction reader (who has presumably already suspended his or her disbelief!). Why wouldn't CB work? I had this idea of CB as pretty much instantaneous communication amongst multiple parties.

TwinStickPeterbilt, how did your friend help you with the annoying 4-wheeler?

Thanks to both of you for replying--really appreciate it!

 

I could see it happening 15 years ago.

 

I like the idea of your book ending. Instead of listening to all the naysayers that it couldn't be done.. how about we pretend for a minute that truck drivers actually talk to each other and even strangers would work together to do something good?

In the real world it probably wouldn't happen, because the drivers now a days can't even show simple courtesy to each other half the time. I still like the premise and believe that it would have happened once upon a time.

 

Well, the first real world detail.. turnpikes in New Jersey are truck restricted. That's kind of a major point to overlook there, especially if you're going for realism.

 

Thanks, Skellr, for your comment. I wonder if truckers really were more willing to help each other out years ago, or if we all romanticize the past a little?

JewelCG, thanks for the positive thinking! Really appreciate it.

WitchingHour, thanks for that particular real-world detail. That's exactly the kind of fact that helps keep the scene (ever so slightly) touching reality!

 

It's changed even since I've been driving.

To answer your question we were on open interstate and we slowed down to about 35 blocking both lanes then sped up and let out of it again for about 10 miles then we both just went back to 5 over, another time he boxed the guy in and we rode down the road for about 10 miles with a guy between 2 trucks and now way to get out.

 

Try turning the book into a Smokey and the bandit movie