Your scariest moment as a truck driver

Last year I was delivering to the Bombardier rail plant in Thunder Bay, ON and I was basically on the home stretch with a few hours left to drive before I made it arrived. I was driving north on Highway 11 around 0100 near Longlac, and I'll just describe the setting before I continue: pitch black, moonless night, thick forested land on either side of the two-lane blacktop. You don't see much oncoming traffic around that time. I was driving a straight stretch of road when I came upon another driver coming the opposite direction. I was tired and my eyes were struggling to adjust to the light in front of me. We must have been about 500 feet apart when I thought I saw something shimmering in the roadway in front of me, but I couldn't make it out against the glare of his headlights. I backed off the throttle a little and it must have only been about a second later when I saw the largest moose I've ever laid my eyes on. I didn't have much time to react so drifted over to the shoulder and just barely missed hitting the hind legs by about a foot or so. When I passed I swear it's shoulders were above the hood of the Pete.

I was fortunate it was crossing in the opposite direction. I don't know if the other driver hit it or not. I saw him jam the brakes on and I tried to holler at him on the CB. He didn't answer and kept driving on, so I'm guessing he missed it. But I'll never know for sure. Maybe not the scariest story, and quite frankly I wasn't rattled or anything, but it definitely startled me and made me way more aware of my surroundings from then on.

 

CR England called me offered me a job followed by FexEx. I locked my doors and did not leave the house for a week.

 

They seem to like standing it the middle of the road at night.

 

Having roughly 4mos otr exp under my belt at the time, this past March I was running a reefer load in a 2010 Freightliner Cascadia from Nogales Az to Salinas, Ca., stopped at TA in Tonopah Az. to top off fuel the night before around 8pm..plus took my 10(so called) then left at 4am, went I-10 west then when in Calif took Hwy 95 North from Blythe to Needles to cross over to I-40 West,
well it was just barely turning to daylight but still dark & was about 3/4 of way up 95 when up ahead at a distance I seen another semi rig coming my way heading south...did'nt think much of it but then I realized the dude started drifting into my lane(2 lane highway with soft dirt shoulders)...as we got closer with no one behind him or I,

I thought to myself "this guy will pull back into his lane right?" but as he got maybe 50 yards away he was still in my lane so I quickly braced myself for impact...I slightly closed my eyes & pulled hard right...as I was slowing down I heard a loud crash then realized I was on the soft dirt shoulder(maybe 6ft wide) & also realized my trailer started fishtailing, so I quickly slowed down & luckily was able to regain control of my truck & slowly pull back onto pavement, I went to look out my side mirror but noticed my mirror was gone & glass dust on inside of my window...only the main rib & fortunately the lower convex was intact(convex was all cracked but could somewhat see down side of truck in lower corner section), thank god it was only our side mirrors that collided.
I slowly limped up the road a bit til I could find a wide enough part of shoulder to park, was shaking but got out & checked damage on truck & trailer(only mirror was damaged)..then I stood on back of trailer to look down highway to see if other driver had pulled over but...nooo, the guy kept going, no other trucks or witnesses around,
all I could see down the road was a big dust plume where I almost rolled the rig & lost my life.

Other driver: If your out there & read this you know who you are..man, stop texting or get some rest before heading out on road.

 

I had a construction worker on 95 in NC working on the shoulder run out in front of me to grab a sign off the jersey barrier in the left lane. This happened at night. I thank the good lord I was going slow enough. As he made his move I saw him even though those super bright work lights were on. He trips on the uneven pavement in my lane and falls in front of a four wheeler passing me on my left. They just missed him. I still to this day don't know how but they did. Once I cleared the zone I pulled over and the four wheeler did as well. We both couldn't believe we missed him we were very shaken up after this. Make a long story short I parked for the night I was done mentally after that one

 

This happened right in front of me the other night: http://www.castlecountryradio.com/pages/21641004.php

What the story doesn't mention is my experience, where the man pulled right out in front of me without lights on at almost dark, made me stand on my brakes at 80k with steel beams, then he swerved to the shoulder, then back in front, the floored it to the shoulder of the exit where he smacked the pole and fell off the cliff.

I couldn't stop the rig, had nowhere to pull over, thought the man was dead.

Haunted me for a couple days until I found that story that presents it as a good Ole grandpa who was just a little distracted by playing with his grand kid and had a boo boo.

Could have very easily been a different story if I didn't over belly wrap and they had to clean my brains off of their road.

 

Most of my scary moments come walking across truckstop parking lots at 2 am.

 

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My scariest moment came one night in WI at about 0145. A Wiconsin state construction vehicle came out of the median right in front of me. I still dont know how I didnt hit it. I can still see the other two workers who had been standing there jumping back over the guard rail.

 

My first winter.
Wyoming winds on light trailer.
Car with accidental popped hood crossing from left to right shoulder nearly causing me to kill everyone.

That's it for now