how hard is it to avoid an accident

[WarHorse]

My husband had been talking to her via the cb about the frustration of dealing with four wheelers and she told him that she felt sorry for them. Get that? Sorry for them!

She felt sorry for them because they were so uninformed. Sure- you can say they shouldn't be uninformed. But there's no denying that they are just that dumb! It really affected be because it's TRUE!

<snip>

I try to take control of my emotions and, well, feel sorry for them. I'm not going to let them wreck into me, but they're destined for a rude awakening one of these days.

Can't say I always hold my temper in check. But it's a lofty goal.

After reading this post, I tried it, and by golly it works! For me, at least.

Thanks for the tip, tweety bird.

[Colin]

i have enough problems with people not moving over when i merge
This is a constant problem I've seen with the merging traffic not realizing they have to yield to traffic they're trying to merge with, not getting up to hwy speed while merging or just plain unable to see around the cell phone glued to their left ear. I just stay in my lane and maintain speed if I can't move over for them. Sometimes they'll either slow down and fall in behind me or run into that fast approaching wall. Either way, I'm in the right staying where I am if I have to.

the problem many drivers have is they don't realize it's their job to find a space, and match the speed of the traffic ALREADY on the highway - it's not the job of the people on the highway to let you in.

That being said, it's a pain to get up to speed with a truck that doesn't speed up as fast as a 4-wheeler, so watching for that opening is much more important - the only time I had a bit of a problem merging on a highway, another trucker slowed down and let me merge nice and smoothly. If I'd had a CB I would've thanked him.

Of all the drivers at my work, I'm the only one who hasn't even had an "almost accident" I've only been working for them for a couple months now - so I'm sure my time will come.

--Dave.

I've always gone with the idea that since I'm in the truck and a person paid to drive, a little bit more professionalism is required.

Things such as:

Not getting road rage when conditions are ripe
Not tailigating
Not cutting someone off after passing
Always seeing far enough ahead when approaching an on ramp to either slow down or merge out of the way

Some companies even insist staying out of the right lane in heavy traffic unless exiting very soon. "The lane of least resistance" would not be the lane being used for merging. If traffic is heavy enough for a truck to be staying in in the middle lane for safety, then no one should really be trying pass. The argument that someone is blocking the middle lane and the #1 is not open to trucks really holds no merit.