Let me educate you, on the way to drive around a big truck.

[UllysesS.Archer]

I was on my home from Maryland, Friday after the big winter storm came through.

Coming through Virginia, I saw 7 trucks, wrecked in the median, and a couple of other sites, that looked like they had already been cleaned up. Every one of those wrecks I saw, looked like everyone involved should have walked away. But, I have seen many, that no one has walked away from.

So, let me educate the uneducated, on how to drive around an 18 wheeler. (if you think you already know, then just bear with me).

This will be an ongoing thread, and when I think of more stuff, it will be added, for everyday I am out there, I see someone doing something more stupid than the day before.

1. Pay attention to the road and the vehicles around you. This is the best way, not to get killed on the road. Don't text, don't read texts, don't be dialing a phone, don't be playing on a laptop, don't be reading a newspaper, don't be clipping your nails(seen it), don't be putting on makeup, don't have a cigarette in one hand and a coffee in the other, don't be having sex(oral or otherwise, and yes, I've seen that at least once a month for 25 years), IN OTHER WORDS PEOPLE, PAY ATTENTION TO THE DAM ROAD!(not yelling at you, just the idiots who do the things listed above.

2. Buckle your seatbelt, why isn't this number 1? because your seatbelt won't help you if you wrap your car around a tree doing 70 and not paying attention. This rule is easy, take 3 dam seconds and put on your seatbelt. Every law enforcement agency will tell you, the number 1 reason people die in auto accidents are because of ejection from their vehicle. Cut those odds down, and click it. And make everyone in the vehicle buckle up too.

The first 2 are common sense, and should be followed whenever driving, period, what im here to tell you is how to drive around a big commercial vehicle.

3. DONT DAUDLE AROUND A TRUCK! don't play around with it, if you catch it, then pass it. for many reasons. First reason, I have seen a truck tire blow out and tear the fender off a car, I have also seen one being aired up, burst and bend solid steel, there is that much pressure on truck tires. Second reason, most trucks are governed out around 62 to 68 mph, the cant run any faster on flat ground, so when they catch another vehicle, they want to go around it, and can't when someone is riding beside of them. Third reason, a gust of wind can send a truck out of lane, a pot hole can send a truck out of lane, the driver could be tired and get out of lane, or any number of reasons that truck could get out of his lane. Don't daudle around a truck. I don't want to kill you, and you don't want to be dead.

More later it's breakfast time.

 

[UllysesS.Archer]

4. If you are turning off within the next mile, then get behind the truck, don't try to pass it. (Yesterday, I was running a bobtail, that means no trailer, home and just an hour from home, some idiot boys, passed me, while I was slowing down to avoid the car in front of me, and getting ready to change lanes and fall in line behind the idiot boys, anyway, they passed me, and I noticed the driver look back, I knew then he was going to exit, but we were right on top of the exit, and he was in the middle lane, and I was in the exit available lane, if I had not noticed him looking back, there would be 3 dead idiot boys in Jefferson county this morning. They cut hard right, right under me, I hit the brakes, hard, got in the middle lane, I knew there was nothing else behind them, and got on my horn to tell them they were idiots, the look on the guys face, said he knew he was an idiot, he got away with it that time, because of my skills, not because of his)

Simple rule, don't cut a truck off, we can't stop on a dime. Some people think, well, it has 18 wheels so it must be able to stop 4 and a half times as fast as a four wheeler, these people are idiots.

80,000 pounds, that is what a truck might weigh, and some oversized trucks weigh much more, 40 tons cannot go from 65 to 0 in a football field, it takes about 3 and a half football fields, around 1000 yards, to go from 65 to 0 in a big truck.

Also, if you see a big truck with a blinker on wanting to change lanes, give the truck the lane, it is far easier for you to recover your speed, than it is for the truck, and many times the truck is getting over to give someone on the side of the road some space. Or, making room for another vehichle to merge onto the road. Think about it lie this, if that was your child on the side of the road, do you want that big ass truck close to it, or do you want that truck to give them some room?