Damn Semi Drivers

[baddis]

ok i wasn't going to post but here goes . what about the dumb asses that back into a parked semi and say i didn't see it? people in cars and light trucks need to understand that it is hard to see some spots in a truck. also i was driving one day car pulled in front of me and came to a dead stop. now in 75 feet you can not stop a big truck. i recieved a ticket for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. i fought it and won. another time i was makeing a right turn and a car decided to pass on the right. got sued over that and won. so you also need to look at the car drivers also.

 

[reginald fairfield]

ok i wasn't going to post but here goes . what about the dumb asses that back into a parked semi and say i didn't see it? people in cars and light trucks need to understand that it is hard to see some spots in a truck. also i was driving one day car pulled in front of me and came to a dead stop. now in 75 feet you can not stop a big truck. i recieved a ticket for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. i fought it and won. another time i was makeing a right turn and a car decided to pass on the right. got sued over that and won. so you also need to look at the car drivers also.

Yeah, that has happened to my dad a couple times too. In trucks you have to swing out to make most turns, nd these stupid compact car drivers decide that the fact that your right blinker is on is a hullucination, so they decide to just go around you as if you are making a left instead of right. One time a couple drunk wetbacks rammed right into my dad's passenger side fuel tank; lucky the idiots didn't blow up the whole damn place. Everyone just slow down and stay the hell outta the way, thats my reccomendation.

 

[blkmazda90]

shoeboy, was the guy that hit your friend bob tailing? Thats about the only time your gonna beat someone off the line. Also like mud crazy said they usually take off in 4th or 5th which lugs and takes a bit to get up to speed.

Its also very possible he didnt even see your friend if he was beside him. If your friend was just a little bit forward or back, the driver couldnt have seen your friend right beside him.

with people pulling out in front of trucks. takes 451ft to stop a truck and trailer at 55mph unloaded.(according to manual)

 

[dogboy]

Trucks aren't fast, they just have ALOT of torque!
The company my dad drives for (pnuematic bulk tankers (usually powder cement)), has the trucks governed at 65-70. They will not go faster that that. Unless maybe you have a long steep hill.
My dad has some pretty good/ scary stories that have happened to him the the 13 years he has been driving trucks (just around Seattle, no interstate stuff).. Most all of them involve passenger cars who are oblivious to the fact that the truck is there, or the fact that a truck takes so long to stop (even unloaded). The rest of them are just other truck drivers that are oblivious.

 

[Jspafford]

I still don't see what would posess a semi driver to smash into a car on purpose, and now to know it was a 2008 model BRAND NEW semi.

That's just retarded.

 

[reginald fairfield]

I still don't see what would posess a semi driver to smash into a car on purpose, and now to know it was a 2008 model BRAND NEW semi.

That's just retarded.

Well, when stupid people breed as they tend to...

 

[ejholmgren]

I drove a dump truck that was just short of needing a CDL to drive working construction after graduating from hs. F*cking people would pull in front of you so close they disappeared under the hood.

 

[Shoeboy]

ok, to straighten a few things out,

-My buddy was stopped at a red light
-He had just moved into that lane from the lane beside him, his car was about 90% in the lane he was needing to be in, he was just on an angle
-After waiting for the light to turn green for a few minutes the semi pulled up behind him and stopped (for the record its on a straight stretch and its a pretty flat, so you can see traffic ahead of you a half kilometer away).
-The Semi truck was just a cab, no trailer, no sleeper, there was no load
-When the light turned green my buddy did not gun it because he was not fully facing straight, because of making the lane change before hand, he slowly started moving to straighten out
-The semi driver either forgot he was there or wasn't paying attention to realize that my buddy hadn't moved, and was still on an angle
- This stretch of road has high large vehicle traffic, so the lanes are wider, my buddy was on the right hand side of the lane, the semi was closer to the left
-Since my buddy was not facing completely forward, and on an angle more like this \, when the semi moved forward he hit my buddy in about the middle of the driver door and continued forwards up until the front bumper of his Corolla.

The point is the driver of the truck is at fault since he hit an object that was stationary that was in place before he had arrived. It is complete lack of paying attention on the drivers part to not recognize a possible obstacle ahead, and for putting his truck in a position where he could not see the obstacle. Also, in Calgary (to the best of my knowledge), any vehicle with a very large blind spot in front of the vehicle needs to have a concave mirror mounted to the driver front fender to see said blind spot. Do you see where I'm at now on this, my buddy was stopped and the driver of the semi put himself in a position where doubt could be created, and the worst happened.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Let me set some things straight.....

Ive drivin just about everything there is to drive, 18 wheelers, step vans, school busses, etc.

First off, people ALWAYS pull out in front of large vehicles. Even when im pulling my camper or something with my F150. No one wants to follow a trailer.

Second of all, it takes alot of skill and concentration to drive a Big rig. The one i drove for a short time was a 1978 Peterbilt, I dont know how the modern rigs are, but that thing needed constant attetion.

People need to HANG UP CELL PHONES, SLOW DOWN, AND PAY ATTENTION. Nothing pisses me off more then when some dumb broad (or asshole guy) pulls out in front of me in a highlander or whatever gabbing on there cell phone. People are to damn worried about whats going on at the office, or why betty and burt broke up.

Why was your buddy sideways across the lane? Even a little bit? If he would of made a proper lane change he woulda had the time to be straight in his lane. That tells me he made an illegal lane change, probely after he was already stopped,, he cut in front of the truck, the truck couldnt stop, and bang, that was it. Im pretty sure any semi truck driver, espically in a new rig like that wouldnt just bulldoze over cars because he can. You friend problely tried to make a lane change after he was already stopped, and the truck came up n his lane and smoked him. End of story.

Sounds liike you guys have a grudge against truck drivers.

later,
Dustin

 

[JoshT]

Let me set some things straight.....

Please don't try to set anything straight, it never bodes well for the conversation.

Ive drivin just about everything there is to drive, 18 wheelers, step vans, school busses, etc.

Quite frankly it doesn't matter what you've driven, where you've driven, or how good of a driver you are. You aren't the driver that hit the friend's car so it don't matter.

First off, people ALWAYS pull out in front of large vehicles. Even when im pulling my camper or something with my F150. No one wants to follow a trailer.

Yes to many people do pull out infront of larger vehicles, but not always. It's also not always intentional, I know of a few times I did pull out in front of a semi thinking I had way more than enough space to go only to find out that I didn't. In most of those situations the semi was going way faster (or gaining speed way faster) than it appeared to be. The rest I was slowed down by someone in front of me with no room to pass them.

Second of all, it takes alot of skill and concentration to drive a Big rig. The one i drove for a short time was a 1978 Peterbilt, I dont know how the modern rigs are, but that thing needed constant attetion.

I agree with you there and unfortunately many of my local drivers and distance rigs passing through lack both of those traits. I swear with the drivers here that half of them got there license out of a cracker jack box.

People need to HANG UP CELL PHONES, SLOW DOWN, AND PAY ATTENTION. Nothing pisses me off more then when some dumb broad (or asshole guy) pulls out in front of me in a highlander or whatever gabbing on there cell phone. People are to damn worried about whats going on at the office, or why betty and burt broke up.

I will strongly agree with ya there, they're usually the ones preventing me from getting out of the semi's way.

Why was your buddy sideways across the lane? Even a little bit? If he would of made a proper lane change he woulda had the time to be straight in his lane. That tells me he made an illegal lane change, probely after he was already stopped,, he cut in front of the truck, the truck couldnt stop, and bang, that was it. Im pretty sure any semi truck driver, espically in a new rig like that wouldnt just bulldoze over cars because he can. You friend problely tried to make a lane change after he was already stopped, and the truck came up n his lane and smoked him. End of story.

He said in the post ahead of you that the friend made an illegal lane change but it was before the rig was in sight. The rig was stopped before the collision happened. While I agree with the fact that the lane change was illegal (obviously), which is probably what puts the fault on the friend, the driver should have left more room between the vehicles at the light. I fully believe that the trucker was to close to the car to see it, hell they do it to me all the time when I'm riding around even on the motorcycle, which will make you pucker a bit know they can't see you. You know that sign on the trailer "if you can't see my mirrors I can't see you", so if I'm on my motorcycle and look back and can't see there face can they see me over their hood? Yes it has happened more than once.

Sounds liike you guys have a grudge against truck drivers.

I don't so much think it is a grudge against truck drivers, as it is the same problem in ever profession. People are trained from birth to be oblivious to the good but complain about the bad. I think thats what you are seeing in this thread.


Oh and FWIW my father used to be a truck driver. Even he says that many of the drivers around here are "incompetent no driving dumb asses."

 

[Roadkill]

If the guy was driving bob-tail then starting in 4th is easy. Any trailer will slow that rig right down, loaded or not.

As a driver myself I see the most ridiculous crap from 4 wheelers daily. Well, truth be told not just 4 wheelers but pedestrians as well. For example just the other day I got an advanced green. I grabbed 2 gears, so I was up into 4th before starting my turn. Frigging old coot decides to start running across the crosswalk after I have sped up. If he had waited 20 seconds the light would have turned green and he would have gotten the walk signal rather than don't walk. So, I slam on the brakes (thankfully UNLOADED not bobtailed) and lay on the air horn. Hopefully I scared the life out of him and maybe made him think for once. If I had hit him then I'm sure the witnesses would be trying to blame me for the accident. I save about 25~30 lives a week by me having to pay attention to not only my rig but EVERYONE else's cars and trucks.

What most 4 wheeler drivers don't understand is anything about handling or driving a tractor-trailer. The DOT's and MTO's don't make them know any basics on written tests, yet we have to know everything about 4 wheelers as well as our rigs.

I do concede on something though. There are 'licence mills' out there and in my opinion only one of those places is too many. These 'schools' as they call themselves do everything possible to churn out students fast. Which they do but, these students who are trained to only pass the road test have NO experience or skills. They are NOT professional drivers by any means. For example, I was docking a 53' trailer and up comes another driver (different company) in a day cab to hook up to a loaded trailer. We got to chatting and he had only been driving for 6 months, the school he went to NEVER taught him how to back up a tractor trailer. In any way at all. The company that hired him kept him with a driver trainer for a week at their yard moving trailers in order to teach him a skill he should have already known. Even some of his other skills were lacking from what I could tell. He has the potential to become a good driver. Sadly, he was amazed I could back a 53 with a highway tractor in the space the yard had (loads and loads of snow).

So yes, there are bad drivers out there. Why anyone would purposely damage an '08 Pete is beyond me. Even if it was only a day cab, it would still be a nice truck, or at least an expensive one. Heck I love my '98 Freightliner highway tractor, I'd hate to bang her up even since she's not worth much anymore.

 

[JoshT]

Hey Dustin I wasn't trying to target you, just a lot of what you posted has been repeated by different folks in this thread, easier to quote from one place.

Oh and I'm going to guess that the laughing bit was because he noticed the major damage done to the car -vs- the minor damage to the truck. I know I would if every one survived intact. Think about it half a car just pushed away compared to a dented bumper and maybe a very small amount of busted fiberglass. Heck I know I've laughed at the amount of damage our trucks have imparted on other cars with the small amount done to them. Replacement bumper and fender for you compared to replacement car for them. Maybe I'm just twisted that way.

 

[Defective]

People who spend a lot of time on the road, truck drivers or not, get tired of seeing sooooo much stupid shit. Why couldn't the kid have waited until he went through the damn intersection before he changed lanes? Why could he have been thinking ahead like he should be and move over before it was an illegal change? Did he even signal? how bout just the fact that he's sitting in two lanes now?

Anyway, he made a stupid decision and I have no sympathy for him. The truck driver was probably just trying to get as close as possible so the car driver would MAYBE, just MAYBE think about what he has done wrong and see the error in his ways. I do that shit to people all the time (without hitting them of course), usually resulting in a "what did I do" kinda face or gesture.

I don't drive a semi, but I do drive over 100 miles a day and every f'ing day see so many stupid people just ignoring simple laws. They think nothing of it because it's just a quick little lane change or whatever, but ****, you have to respect these laws to respect other drivers! I'm sick of seeing f'ers snapping into other lanes as you come to an intersection because there is a couple less cars in that one. I couldn't imagine driving a semi around here in my state. It's quite surprising there aren't more semi-related accidents due to this.

 

[Shoeboy]

Well, I saw the car, and I have to say it held up a lot better then I expected. and for the record, my buddy did get ticketed with an Illegal lane change for $180. The reason why he changed lanes is that he thought he needed to turn at the next intersection (going to pick up a tire for his bike, at least he still have his Suzuki to ride in the mean time, and the weathers nice enough right now too), and he realized that he was at the intersection he needed to turn at with the duel turns. The section of road is messed up with construction so its hard to keep track of what lane is open and whats not. He move over into the second turn lane to turn to get onto the road with the new entrance of the parking lot. My buddy admitted to the illegal lane change, but it still doesn't explain why the trucker didn't see him when pulling up to his car later on.

 

[preflight]

A semi truck came up and stopped about 50 feet behind him in the lane he was 3/4 of the way in. The light turned green, and well 2008 Peterbuilt has a lot better acceleration then a 2007 Corolla, the semi (what was hauling nothing at the time) hit him in the middle of the drivers door and continued forward (at 50 ft the acceleration of a big truck
mabe at best would be 10mph if he was at a stop)
you have come up with a whopper of a story IF your buddie was given the ticket well good for him..
I have been a truck driver for 17 yrs. that driver wouldn`t just hit someone too much paper work too fill out and I don`t think your telling the whole story .