Can you comprehend the madness?

[old steel]

About 8:30pm this evening i was heading to the plant to pick up 45 tons of fertilizer with the freightliner and super bee trailers on a two lane highway with a shoulder coming around a curve at just under 70 mph, when a hutterite in a Peterbilt body job truck pulls up to the stop sign on a gravel road ready to enter the highway, he is around 7 maybe 8 seconds away from me passing him, he takes a look at me and pulls right out in front with his truck half in my lane and half on the shoulder trying his best to race away from me. I know this truck.

Everything i know goes right out the window, my life and the lives of everyone around us are in extreme danger, there is a double solid line in the middle of the highway. My survival instincts take over in a heartbeat, i instantly decide not to crash into him and i cross the double solid line into the oncoming lane my left hand automatically grabs the air horn cord in the hope oncoming traffic will hear it and head for the shoulder or ditch avoiding a deadly collision that will cost us our lives. My left hand grabs the right side of the steering wheel, at the first glimpse of an oncoming vehicle headed for me i might have somewhere between 1-2 seconds of reaction time in that time if i see a vehicle i plan to crank the steering wheel as fast and hard as i can, with extreme prejudice to the right and take down the Peterbilt. I crest the hill flying by the person that has decided he has a right to decide who lives and dies on the road, our mirrors miss by maybe an inch, there is no oncoming traffic, i'm past him and reenter my lane.

A mile later he turns off into a field. When i get to the plant i tell the guy there what happened, he tells me to phone the cops, i should have phoned the cops but it's my word against his, no other witnesses. Then the truck shows up across the highway from the plant but he won't enter in cause he sees my truck.

I'm ready to beat him with a shovel till he doesn't move if i can get to him.

When i got home 20 minutes ago i stopped and smelled the lilac flowers covering the bushes. I'm so grateful to be alive.

Have a safe memorial day weekend everyone.

[Hatha Sunahara]

What good would it have done to call the cops? They are even more dangerous than lunatics on the highway.


Hatha

[palani]

There is a school of thought that makes the case that you alone are responsible for everything that happens to you. Not to seem unsympathetic but if you hadn't been truckin' along at 70 mph maybe this incident could have been avoided? Possibly the Hutterite had depth perception issues? Beating him with a shovel seems like a knee jerk reaction that comes with a its own penalties.

[Libertytree]

I'm happy to hear you beat the odds. Something tells me though that you and that fellers paths will cross again someday.

[V10Silver]

Try riding a motorcycle. EVERYONE is trying to kill you. Between the inattentive to the distracted. I hate handheld phones in vehicles. Some old bastard ( about my age) backed out of his driveway last weekend right in front of me. I stopped right along side of him and he said the words every biker hates...I didn't see you.

Glad yore superior driving skills saved your butt. Please be safe and look twice.....

Peace, Out

[Dogman]

Have not rode a scoot since before all of the electronic toys in cages, But I wish I could count the number of times that I have locked eyes on drivers in the other lane right before they pull a left hand turn in front of me, or drivers that pull out in front of me from the right.

Major pissed at some of them and their cages had the dents in the side from my boots to prove it.

Eye contact and they still pull out or turn, and the few I have talked to all said they "Did not see me".

Now, with all the phones, and electronic distractions, it has to be much , much worse.

I can understand motorcycles are small, but today everyone is at risk, as Old Steel experienced, Bunch of crazy aggressive idiots on the highways today, and that is compounded by all of the electronic distractions drivers have.

Phones are the worst! Seems like more than half have one plugged into one ear or the other.

Sorry for the words, the thread dug up some sore memory's.


Edit: Old Steel, just think this , what goes around, will come around. Karma is a bitch.

And Karma usually catches up to those with bad.

Glad you came out ok.

[madfranks]

Try riding a motorcycle. EVERYONE is trying to kill you. Between the inattentive to the distracted. I hate handheld phones in vehicles. Some old bastard ( about my age) backed out of his driveway last weekend right in front of me. I stopped right along side of him and he said the words every biker hates...I didn't see you.

Glad yore superior driving skills saved your butt. Please be safe and look twice.....

Peace, Out

Yeah, being on a bike you have to drive under the assumption that every other car/truck doesn't know you're there. You have to anticipate their moves.

[Libertytree]

I remember driving that little 50cc scooter for a year and a half. 10 miles each way to work and at 9:30 pm on the way home, it was like playing roulette every friggin day! Now from time to time I drive a little Ford Geo and it's only marginally better because it's so hard to see. I've broken my neck in one accident and I'm sure as hell not wanting any part of that kind of shit again!

[Dogman]

I remember driving that little 50cc scooter for a year and a half. 10 miles each way to work and at 9:30 pm on the way home, it was like playing roulette every friggin day! Now from time to time I drive a little Ford Geo and it's only marginally better because it's so hard to see. I've broken my neck in one accident and I'm sure as hell not wanting any part of that kind of shit again!

Full dressers with lights on, stand a better chance!

Had a van once that I painted bright canary yellow, during my scooter days, daring people not to not see it!! A shade or so brighter than school bus yellow! I could be seen coming more than a mile away, never got hit. ;)

Think international yellow! But a shade of two brighter, this was in the mid 80's or so! It eventually got converted to 4x4 drive, tho fought the center of gravity thing, trying to keep the weight down and low.

Good times!

Android Forum Runner

Android Forum Runner

[Hitch]

I remember driving that little 50cc scooter for a year and a half. 10 miles each way to work and at 9:30 pm on the way home, it was like playing roulette every friggin day! Now from time to time I drive a little Ford Geo and it's only marginally better because it's so hard to see. I've broken my neck in one accident and I'm sure as hell not wanting any part of that kind of shit again!

I can't even use my little 90cc bike where I live, the main highway is way to crazy, and it's the only way in and out of town.

Glad you are OK, old steel.

[Dogman]

Name of the game is to become visible and stand out, and even then some will not see you because they are locked into their personal world of their cages both of mind and vehicle while traveling.

[milehi]

I recently had someone tresspass and do me dirty in the dirtiest dirt dog way you could burn someone. I was going to brain them with a shovel but counted to ten and decided to let the multiverse deal with it. When shit like this happens I usually consult my big brother EE for advice but I already knew the answer.

[Libertytree]

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.



I recently had someone tresspass and do me dirty in the dirtiest dirt dog way you could burn someone. I was going to brain them with a shovel but counted to ten and decided to let the multiverse deal with it. When shit like this happens I usually consult my big brother EE for advice but I already knew the answer.

[milehi]

Thank you LT. I filed it under, "play stupid games, win stupid prizes." Although, if I was in my twenties...I'd be winning stupid prizes.

[Libertytree]

Milehi, if but by the grace of God, I didn't almost win not one not two but three of the ultimate stupid prizes and I was in my 20's.

[Hillbilly]

Fuck whinny motorcycle riders are always crying about "sharing the road" but then they do shit like split lanes weave in and out of traffic. I don't listen to their bullshit anymore.

[Dogman]

Good crawl back into your echo chamber, with your friends.


6379

[govcheetos]

Figure this:

Half the people in the world are below average.

That trucker was probably my sister's husband, can't drive for shit. I don't know how he has a CDL.

I know a lot of folks who ride motorcycles and get tired too of the whole share the road BS when you see so many of them use it only when it's conveinent for them. Especially the crotch rocket douchebags and the wannabe sons of anarchy types who are a mortgage broker by day and sonny barger by night.