Re: Are all truck drivers idiots?

Jon wrote:
On Feb 8, 7:34 am, gringo <gri...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
nothermark wrote:
On Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:13:46 -0600, gringo <gri...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Jerry wrote:
"Gashauler" <swordfi...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Ha-dnSQq_P9KpzbanZ2dnUVZ_j-dnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Mike Corey" <AWR7MM...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:23614-47AA72F7-17@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Okay, I'm sure I'll catch heck from the truck drivers on this forum, but
is a lobotomy a pre requisite to get a CDL?
Yes some states require it and looking at your post you can tell that
Illinois is one of them. But it is at no cost to the driver. And if the
driver develops drooling afterwards then he has a workmans comp claim.
There's bad drivers everywhere! I was once "squeezed" up against a bridge
by a trucker who got mad because I slowed down over a bridge I KNEW to have
ICE on it. In such a hurry to be killed, he was!! I reported him to NTSB. He
got fired.
For the last 15 years of my career, I REFUSED to drive on an interstate
highway because of some the idiocy exhibited by drivers in snow. Not all
truckers, either. SUV's are about the worst. The radio would be blasting
out "Black Ice, Black Ice, Black Ice every 2 minutes, and there are clowns
whizzing past me at 70 MPH! Ya'd usually find them up a bank somewhere up
the road, overturned, off in the ditch. And they NEVER catch on!!! :( And
they'd get MAD as heck at YOU for tippy-toe-ing along over the ice, blowing
their horns and mouthing atcha! Had a girl one time to honk her horn and
literally cuss me OUT because I was creeping along in a near blizzard. I
found HER Ford Pinto UP a high bank, her lights pointing at the
sky--hopelessly STUCK! I stopped, rolled down the window and yelled, "SERVES
YOU RIGHT, YA STUPE!" And left her sitting there!!! I'll help someone that
doesn't act like an idiot. Her? Unh-uh! Goofballs will KILL you! I'm
having a bad enough time trying to get along in the mess without having some
impatient fool slam into ME!
And have you ever heard that stuff about, "I'm not worried about ME driving
in the snow, it's the 'other guy' I'm worried about? Translation: *I'm*
this super snow driving superman and everybody ELSE is the idiot, not ME!
HA! I'm just as worried about ME scootin' around on the snow as about that
other fella that might hit me: or the other way around. I ain't above a boo
boo, either! Just trying to get home in one piece!
Now trucks have their moments, too. Like the morning I was sent home during
a pretty good snowstorm, I was moving along at about 25 MPH which, for THAT
particular storm was safe. This was on I-85 in Charlotte, NC (folks, it
DOES snow in NC, contrary to some beliefs). Here come 3 semis from behind at
a pretty good clip in the left lane. On the CB, they are talking about all
the "stupid" 4-wheelers, blah, blah, blah, how they can't drive, etc, etc.
(well, it is true for some, but's its true for some truckers, too). They
blew past me about 50 just COVERING my car and windshield with snow,
temporarily blinding me. They went a short distance ahead while I muttered
some choice words about THEIR intelligence :).....................when, all
of a sudden something happened. Those trucks were jacknifing all over the
place. Two turning completely around in the road, crunching their cabs in
the process, the other one going off in the median cleaning out some
shubbery planted in the middle! *I* came to a complete stop watching this
5-6 second spectacle of these huge vehicles just spinning out of control in
the middle of the interstate! When they stopped I thought to myself, WHOA!
"This is where I GET OFF!" It so happened that I was stopped just before the
Billy Graham Parkway exit (Mulberry Church Road for those who come thru
Charlotte), and I just eased off the interstate to safer pastures. I
couldn't resist and when I got up to the top of the exit, mindful of the
ugly things the drivers had been saying about 4-wheelers, I picked up my
mike and said, "You truckers think you know it ALL, doncha!" LMAO!
SILENCE! Not ONE word did I hear in return! :) And from that day forth,
when traveling to my day job, I remained OFF the interstate!!!!
Them peoples is CRAAAAAY-ZEEEEEEEEEE!!
J
I won't remark about your anti-trucker tirade.
I point out, though, that all snow ain't equal. For instance, Montana
snow is dry; an inch of the stuff falling in September will still be
blowing back and forth on the roads in March (you can't make a snowball
with the stuff 'less you pee on it first). But NC snow is wet. NC snow
ices quickly, quicker than it will in more northern climes, and because
of the warmer roadbed, it doesn't get a good "bite" of the pavement...it
(and trucks and cars riding on it) breaks loose easily. Therefore, a
skilled PA driver can come south and get his ass in a bind real quick in
a southern ice/snowstorm.
Just curious. We gat a lot of weather like this weekend - 35 tomorrow
then a front is moving through and the local weather guy says teens on
Sunday. Here they will salt the roads so it should be OK but sloppy.
It sounds like NC doesn't bother to salt. Is that the problem?
when it's bad, yes, they salt--or, more likely, sand. But they
certainly haven't enough "salt" trucks; they're used mostly in the
mountain regions, when it's pretty bad. The problem is the thin layer
of ice that develops here. Now, I'm not talking black ice--though the
South gets lots of that in cold spells. I'm referring to reg'lar ol'
icing. Like the ice on a frosted mug, it breaks loose, and when it
doesn't, it is greasy due to its moisture content, it doesn't provide
any traction for man or beast. We don't get all that much
ice/snow--certainly not as much as you contend with. Except, of course,
on bridges. Bridges down here can ice at 35 degrees, and coming off a
wet patch onto an icy bridge, that's where people get into trouble. I
sat on a get-off ramp the other week on MS's hwy 78 and watched three
cars in a row careen into a mad spin and into a ditch at the transition
point from slick bridge to wet road. A minute later, big rigs began to
leave that bridge sliding sideways up the road before straightening out.

It isn't necessarily that they don't know how to drive in it. It's that
so many are scared shitless, and try to creep when creeping is
unnecessary; and so many other more experienced drivers (trucks and
4-wheelers) are driving a bit faster. The slow ones will put on their
flashers like flashers will make them safer, and stay out there in the
left lane, usually running directly beside another slow one in the right
lane. And, yes, drivers who are more used to driving northern,
well-salted roads that provide more traction often drive too fast for
Southern icing. But you get that same admixture of slow/fast drivers
north of I-40.

a pet peeve of mine are those who snicker at people who wind up in the
ditch, "He don't know how to drive in this shit." Truth is, a hundred
vehicles can pass over a bad patch without mishap, and then the
hundred-and-one car or truck hits that spot at a slightly different
angle and is off to the races. Having said that, in 21+ years of
driving, I have never slid off the road--not in Montana, and not in
North Carolina. But my time is coming, some time in the future. Anyone
who makes it through a bad winter without mishap is not necessarily a
better driver; he is just luckier. Anyone who doesn't drive a bad road
puckered up with hands tight on the wheel is a fool.
I drive ice faster than the slowest, and slower than the fastest. I
don't ever travel in a pack--if I can't safely overtake them, I stay far
back behind. And if I have to lag due to conditions or traffic
congestion, I find a place to park it.

Mostly, I find that it ain't the speed that causes problems in both
winter and summer; it's the admixture of the foolishly fast and the
overly cautious.

--
"Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched."
--- George Herbert Walker Bush, in an interview with Sarah McClendon, 1992- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"it's the admixture of the foolishly fast and the
overly cautious."

Well put.


Thank you.

--
"Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched."
--- George Herbert Walker Bush, in an interview with Sarah McClendon, 1992 .

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Are all truck drivers idiots?
    ... For the last 15 years of my career, I REFUSED to drive on an interstate highway because of some the idiocy exhibited by drivers in snow. ... The radio would be blasting out "Black Ice, Black Ice, Black Ice every 2 minutes, and there are clowns whizzing past me at 70 MPH! ... Those trucks were jacknifing all over the place. ...
    (misc.transport.trucking)
  • Re: Are all truck drivers idiots?
    ... There's bad drivers everywhere! ... highway because of some the idiocy exhibited by drivers in snow. ... out "Black Ice, Black Ice, Black Ice every 2 minutes, and there are clowns ... Now trucks have their moments, ...
    (misc.transport.trucking)
  • Re: Are all truck drivers idiots?
    ... ICE on it. ... highway because of some the idiocy exhibited by drivers in snow. ... this super snow driving superman and everybody ELSE is the idiot, ... (and trucks and cars riding on it) ...
    (misc.transport.trucking)
  • Re: Are all truck drivers idiots?
    ... There's bad drivers everywhere! ... I was once "squeezed" up against a bridge by a trucker who got mad because I slowed down over a bridge I KNEW to have ICE on it. ... For the last 15 years of my career, I REFUSED to drive on an interstate highway because of some the idiocy exhibited by drivers in snow. ... Those trucks were jacknifing all over the place. ...
    (misc.transport.trucking)
  • Re: Are all truck drivers idiots?
    ... There's bad drivers everywhere! ... I was once "squeezed" up against a bridge by a trucker who got mad because I slowed down over a bridge I KNEW to have ICE on it. ... For the last 15 years of my career, I REFUSED to drive on an interstate highway because of some the idiocy exhibited by drivers in snow. ... Those trucks were jacknifing all over the place. ...
    (misc.transport.trucking)