Your scariest moment as a truck driver

This one is pretty simple. Most of us consider ourselves to be smart enough to not do something dumb enough to get ourselves killed. EVERYONE in their life and especially in the trucking game will do something that they could and probably should have gotten killed while doing. The main thing that EVERYONE needs to remember is when something stupid happens STOP!!!

Collect your wits and get back into a mindset to fix whats broken, bent or messed up. Things will always be compounded if you REACT rather than respond to something that it already to late to do anything about!

My stupid / dangerous story? (sorry for the novel) I had been driving trucks for about a year (maybe less). This was with my first company in California. I hauled tires, I would leave the yard, deliver a large delivery in one of the bay area Costco's or Price Clubs and then several smaller stops down through San Jose, To Salinas, over to Monterey, up to Santa Cruz and then back to the bay to pick up a loaded container of tires back to the DC.

Anyway.. I was driving my old favorite truck at the time, A 1971 Ford "Flatback" Cabover. No sleeper so the rear of the old 6V92 hung out of the rear of the cab. The air compressor and all sorts of things were back there and of course so were the rotating belts.. This thing would eat either the air lines, the pig tail or BOTH at least every month or so. It would also sometimes knock the coolant line fittings off if the air compressor, loads of fun! I carried hoses, ferrules, electrical tape, an "easy out", and assorted wiring and tape for these trying times.

Anyway Anyway, I was tooling through the wild country on 101 south of Gilroy and south of the scales there and noticed that my air gauges were acting odd.. I knew what the problem was. There was a hole in the emergency line on the tractor. In this area there are hills and you are driving through what amounts to a canyon of sorts. There is a wide spot / parking area off on the shoulder of 101. I got stopped and decided to check things out. Now I do have to add the problem starts right here! The old ford did NOR have the normal set up of buttons for the parking brakes and the trailer supply valve. There is ONE spring loaded thingy that you had to lower and lock in for it to stay open. This meant that either all the brakes were SET or all the brakes were RELEASED.. Did I mention that I was in hill country?

I climbed up on the frame (no cat walk btw) to check out the hoses.. I could not find any holes.. so (Here's where the fun begins) I released the brakes and climb back up there to find the now hissing hole in the air line. GREAT! I found it very easily then.... About the same time, I noticed that the scenery was rapidly changing all around me. I was standing on the back of the truck as it was trying to roll backwards out onto HWY 101...

You have NEVER seen a person move that fast (especially a big SOB like me) in your life! I flew from the frame to the drivers seat and jammed the brakes on so hard that I probably bent the floor in the old Ford..

I never have felt so fortunate nor stupid in my life and I hope never to feel that way again!!!

Think people! Think!!!

 

I had been driving nights and sleeping days for 3 days just because of the loads I was being scheduled. I was on I-40 heading west just 10 miles east of Kingman, AZ. Doing my usual governed speed with a 46K dog food load I had picked up that morning over at Ralston Purina in Flagstaff. A little sleepy with the morning sun hitting me thru the window, I came over the last hill prior to the 'race' down to Kingman over an 8-mile stretch where all of us drivers let it 'float!' Just as I came over the hill, in heavy truck traffic both lanes (I was in the granny) and behind me, I came up on another truck with flashers on doing about 5-10 mph (guess trying to limp into Kingman--should have pulled off at the Petro a few miles back for repairs!!). No way could have stopped, couldnt change lanes, so calmy (learned NEVER to panic years ago!!) went right to the shoulder and passed the truck at about 20-30 mph...didnt plan on passing on the right, but he was going so slow, I just pulled back on and went my 'merry' way....I consider my self a safe driver, and stuff like this upsets me, wondering if I wasnt a little sleepy and 'racing' to Kingman if I could have avoided the situation?! But, as we all know, ALL drivers make mistakes (not fully attentive all the time, not both hands on the wheel, etc) that could make us momentarily vulnerable....not excusing, but it happens.

 

I'm not gonna re type it all... so here is the link to mine. I posted it earlier.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...-dont-push-too-hard-heres-why.html#post199265

 

It was a COLD February day in northern Canada, the freezing rain a few days before had put about a layer of ICE about 5 inches thick on all road surfaces. We were driving (barely holding traction) on a 4 lane highway behind a super B fuel tanker. All of a sudden a sand truck pulls out from the shoulder right in front of the tanker, who moves into the hammer lane, and we move into the left hand side shoulder. Who knows how we all managed to avoid an accident, but the sand truck driver certainly deserves a DARWIN award for his efforts to extinguish not only his own life, but the lives of other hard working truckers and swampers.
From the lack of expression on the sand truck drivers face, it would appear that he was oblivious to the fact that pulling out onto a highway from the parked position requires caution, and doing so without looking first might cause a serious accident!

 

it was six weeks after I started driving, coming out of Arizona into New mexico, I was coming up to a on ramp when I noticed a black Pete rolling up the ramp to get on the road so I moved over into the hammer lane to give him the room as I moved over I notice a motorcycle behind the pete coming on as well so as the my truck and the pete meet I looked in my left mirror to see if my trailor was dog legging into his lane, what I saw instead terified me, that motorcycle I mentioned earlier was coming up in between both of us... Yep right down the dotted line, the Pete apparently did not see him or had not checked the mirror and was still coming out into the lane so as the Pete was going left into the slow lane I was going left onto the shoulder to avoid sucking the cycle under my truck, if you have seen the shoulders in New Mexico they are not flat they round over, so now here I am driving at highway speeds on a shoulder that at any moment could give way and suck me into some soft sand or dirt causing me to jackknife, Thank goodness that did not happen, but if it was not for my checking of that passenger mirror that move the cyclist made would have been his last not to mention the last for his rider. Since then I have been behind the wheel of a truck for ten years, and I still enjoy it. even though there are idiots out there like that one... My words of advice is the same as most everyone here pay attention and get the big picture. If you don't it will bite you and bite you hard.

 

I was on my way to Brookville IN, at about 0100, just trying to get there because the customer would let drivers park there and sleep. It was raining and very windy, and I was pushing hard, on some little two lane, hauling ##### (goind about 65). Well I crested a little hill, and on the other side found a deluge, I managed to shut off the Jake, but when I hit the water I hydroplaned onto the shoulder. Now I'm getting worried, well got the rig slowed down, yanked it back up onto the road, but when the trailer came back up, it promptly tried to jacknife, now that scared the hell out of me! Thankfully, I got my truck back under control, and now, flushed with adrenaline, made it to Brookville without any more problems.

Obviously, if I had stopped at the Wally world in Shelbyville (like I had planned) and just slept there, none of this would have happened.

Hey Fozzy, had a similar moment to yours, back in my Fedex Ground days. I was delivering to a residence (with a Step Van), and while signing, the customer looks over my shoulder and says 'hey dude, your trucking's rolling!' I imagine he was thinking the same thing you said, he never saw a fat guy move so fast! Thankfully, the passenger door was open, so I dove in across the floor and hit the brake pedal with my hand. Turns out the parking brake lever popped out of park, allowing the truck to start rolling.