[Couch]

Sit back folks, cause you aren't going to believe this. Tonight Im driving up I-75 just south of Atlanta in my little Toyota Corolla. Im in the center lane doing 70MPH in a 70MPH zone, when suddenly my rear window fills up with the lights from a speeding semi. I cant get to the right because there is another truck there. The trailing semi is so close that all I can see is his grill. Needless to say, this pisses me off. I decelerate so that I can fall in behind the truck to my right. Well this must have really pissed off the idiot behind me because he turned his high beams on and HIT ME! He fricken nudged the back of my Corolla at 65MPH! Un-believable!! Well, Now I decelerate to around 30MPH and motion foe the idiot to pull over. Nope, he decides to make a wild lane change into the now vacated right land... running an SUV off the road. as he passes me he hangs the one finger salute out the window. Oh HELL NO!! My first call was to 911 and a very nice Henry County Deputy got the jackass pulled over. I talked with the Deputy who left it up to me as to whether I wanted to file a accident report, and if I wanted the jackass to go to jail for leaving the scene of an accident. At first I said, "Hell no, he needs to go to jail for Aggravated Assault (Felony) as I was in fear for my life when I was hit". After I calmed down and I watched the nice Deputy RIP Mr Road Rage a new a$$
I felt better. We decided to do one better than arresting the jerk... So, my next phone call was to his company's safety department, and so was the Deputy's.

The company safety officer did call me back. I very nicely told him what I though of their drivers actions. I was assured that the situation was going to be taken care of, and he apologized up and down.

Now what really is on my mind. The trucking industry. Pathetic. That is the state of affairs in our business. I know that Mr Jacka$$ was not representing the majority of us in this business, but he was representing more than a few.

We are not going to get a better reputation with the public with idiots like that on the road. Problem is, there are more than a few of them out there. The industry can do a HELL of allot better at preventing incidents like this. For one, they can hire better people. A high school diploma should be required at a minimum. The driver looked like a refugee from Grizzly Adams. His clothing was in disarray. What a representative. Our industry isn't going to get any better until we up our standards and hire people with common sense and a sense of respect.

I can now see first hand why the people are calling for more regulation in our industry. We are represented by morons like I encountered tonight. What if the person that he was trying to intimidate was a lady and her baby? What if they were elderly? What if it were someone who didn't give a $hit and placed a cap in his a$$?

To tell you the truth, if he would have stopped immediately and he would have given me an ounce of lip or attitude, I would have beaten his a$$ senseless. Thats how made that made me and I'm not kidding.
This has got to stop, or we can stand by and greet more legislation like the 14 hour rule.

[mikey4069]

Wow hope they fired his ass!!!

[bcbasher]

Originally Posted by Couch

A high school diploma should be required at a minimum.

OK i am pretty much with you on this post and i understand what you are saying but i think that the above quote doesn't make a shitting bit of difference. i am not a high school graduate nor will i ever be. i dropped out for personal reasons as a teenager. this does not make me a bad person or any one else a bad person just because they did not finish high school. hell my father is in upper management and has been for a long time and he never finished high school either. i honestly think a high school diploma would have made this situation any better or any situation like this any better. what needs to be done is better screening of drivers and and people like YOU who actually care about this industry's looks. i am not trying to get into a pissing match about this but i do not think that a high school diploma should be required for any thing.

yes some people might consider me uneducated and yah so what. i really don't care what they think. i know what I NEED to know not what someone else think i should know.

there are people out here, and in the world, who do have a diploma and i swear they don't know crap. they leaned what the SCHOOL thought them not what life had to teach them. they have all the book smarts in the world but not a damn like of common sense, witch it would seem to be the problem with the driver you encountered today.

[vavega]

i want to know exactly what tickets he got. and no i don't neccessarily think just calling safety was the best thing to do. there's a distinct possibility that was a wasted call depending on how bad that company needs drivers. :shock: as sick as that sounds, if they need him badly enough he won't be fired depending on how the tickets turn out. :roll: will you be going to court as a witness?

we're not going to get rid of guys like this just by complaining to safety, they need to be run out by reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident tickets. let the insurance companies and their dmv histories trail them around to make sure they stay out of the business.

[classicxl]

you should have had him arrested the safety guy could have just been blowing smoke up you behind

[Malaki86]

Yup - he' probably still out on the road with the same company. The guy should've been arrested for that crap.

[PackRatTDI]

You would have been better off calling Domino's Pizza than the company's safety department. At least with Domino's you would have gotten a pizza.

It would have made more of a punishment to have him arrested than to leave it up to the company to handle it internally.

[Couch]

BC Basher: A minimum education requirement would ensure the industry a better quality of person in the long run. Not saying that all non-high school graduates or GED holders are idiots, but setting minimal standards for the industry would also help our knuckle dragging image. Thats my opinion, and like a a$$hole, it may stink, but it is what it is.

[Roadhog]

No offense, but I'd believe this more if you didn't have a penchant to embellish so much. Maybe that is why the Henry County Deputy didn't ticket this Driver.

I'm not saying what you claim isn't true. But just like the Deputy...I want to hear both sides, and make a judgement call.

I've seen that stress you are talking about myself out there. The Driver may have felt you were picking a fight when you slowed down under his axles. I think he was wrong YES...but I don't think your actions really are a righteous as you wish. Passive Aggressive behavior is really just as irritating.
If you choose to puch buttons...brace for the opposite and equal reaction.

You might want to get off the name calling and belittling. I think you are showing how you acted out on the road.

Again...I believe the Driver was wrong, and started this mess. But I think you enjoyed it. Sorry.

[Mr. Ford95]

Couch, I know that by law you did the right thing by slowing down to try and get out of the way by getting behind the vehicle beside you. Had you sped up and got over and a cop pulled you for speeding, you would have heard the judge telling you that you made the wrong choice. Well, this is reality, you NEVER drop the throttle when a semi is that close to your rear end. If it were another car, that would have been fine, they can slow down a lot quicker and easier but not a semi. I'm not saying the driver was in the right to hit you, but maybe he did try to slow up. Your lucky he didn't run clean over top of you with that stunt.

If what you said is all true, he should have been in jail. I would not have let him off the hook by calling the company. You put him in jail and the company has no choice but to terminate him, going to jail is MUCH worse than being fired. As it is, he may get hit with a slap on the wrist from the judge if that because it looks like he wasn't even written a ticket from your story. You said the cop ripped him a new one, then called his company but did he write him for anything??

What was the company??