Something to think about while driving

[Stealhead]

I witnessed something today that I think every driver should have in their mind while at a traffic light.

Just recently I joined on as a partner in my cousins trucking company.Well in this company everyone drives some (we do flatbed) so I have been riding and driving with my cousin and some of the other drivers to get some experience with flatbeds.

Well today I did a quick regional job in Kentucky the truck I am driving is a 379.Well we get off the interstate onto a 4 lane divided highway.At the first traffic light another 379 with a hopper pulls up next to me.I guess he was in a hurry cause he got up to about 67MPH cause I was going about 63.So a mile or two up the road he gets ahead and gets into the right lane there is a Honda Accord on up the road in the left lane.

So I see another traffic light down the road about 2 miles away as I get closer I start letting off because they always seem to change for me.Sure enough it does from my vantage point I'm about 400 yards away when it turns yellow the other 379 is about 110 yards in front of me and the Honda is closer maybe 200 yards from the light when it goes yellow.

So I start slowing down the Honda starts slowing down.The other 379? Hell no he keeps it mashed to floor lights been red for 4 or 5 seconds by the time he goes under the lights.:o And there are cars ready to go luckily they where either lethargic on the light change (which was green for them) or they saw "Peterkilt"(Peter-killed-it) coming and waited.

Just saying even if it is green you might want to look and see if anyone else is running the light specifically if you are up at the line.It is bad enough to get hit by a car or pickup that might run a light a semi is gonna kill you and your dog back at home and knock your neighbor into next week.

Remember everyone else "sharing" the road is an idiot and they will kill you if you let them.

What a risk that driver took and for what to arrive 20 seconds sooner.

[em2nought]

Well, I'm glad it wasn't a green Volvo with a sleeper.

[TG626]

I've seen this a lot here in Cali. Funny thing, in MD where I used to live, the lights are all timed so that the time it takes for the lights on road a to go from yellow to red, it takes for the light on road b to turn green. Lots of time for clowns like that to run the light.

Here their red and your green switch at almost the exact same time. I think the other way is safer...

[kranz]

a green Volvo
hey, that's my car!

I was in a similar situation a few years ago. I wasn't going that fast...but slightly above the limit. Saw the yellow light, started braking and stopped where I should. But the lorry driver behind my tail must have thought that both of us would 'make it' through the yellow.
Well, what I saw was his cabin nose-dive very, very, very deep but he somehow managed not to crash my back.

[Jimbuna]

Here in the UK they are known as 'amber gamblers'.

[Wolferz]

That's when you get accident reports like...

"A green light anticipator was struck by a yellow light accelerator":huh:

[AVGWarhawk]

Shame there was not a red light camera taking pictures so a violation notice and fine could be mailed to the owner of the truck. What I don't understand is drivers who depend on their CDL to survive drive like idiots. It does not take much to lose their safety rating and get black balled by companies offering loads to transport.

[Wolferz]

Shame there was not a red light camera taking pictures so a violation notice and fine could be mailed to the owner of the truck. What I don't understand is drivers who depend on their CDL to survive drive like idiots. It does not take much to lose their safety rating and get black balled by companies offering loads to transport.

Those are known as Billy Bob truckers.

Here in PA a moving violation while driving your POV in a construction or school zone will get your CDL yanked poste haste.:huh: Because you're supposed to know better.:-?

[Ducimus]

Just saying even if it is green you might want to look and see if anyone else is running the light specifically if you are up at the line.It is bad enough to get hit by a car or pickup that might run a light a semi is gonna kill you and your dog back at home and knock your neighbor into next week.


Oh yea. Courts aside, there is one universal rule of the road, "He who's biggest wins". I don't think a lot of people realize it can take a long time for a tractor to slow down. I think this every time i see some idiot dart in front of one, especially as a light is changing. Inertia's a bitch.

[Wolferz]

Driving today holds the same advice as the X files...
Trust No One!

[Sailor Steve]

That happened to me back in '75. My wife and I were driving up a regular city street and were slowing down for a red light. We were still fifty feet from it when it changed green. I accelerated back to 30 mph and was crossing the intersection when a guy trying to beat the yellow light (5-6 seconds late) plowed into us, hitting the passenger side of the car just a few inches behind my wife. Nobody was hurt, and there were several witnesses to testify that the other guy was way late on the light, so I was in no trouble.

When I was first driving my dad told me "The only time you ever run a yellow light is if you are already too close to stop when it changes." My own version is "If you have to accelerate to beat the light, you're doing it wrong."

[Oberon]

I believe my grandfather once said to my mother when she was learning to drive that one should drive as if there was the possibility to run into a copulating elephant around the next corner.

[fireftr18]

Just saying even if it is green you might want to look and see if anyone else is running the light specifically if you are up at the line.It is bad enough to get hit by a car or pickup that might run a light a semi is gonna kill you and your dog back at home and knock your neighbor into next week.


:har:


That's when you get accident reports like...

"A green light anticipator was struck by a yellow light accelerator"


:har:

No other comment needed. Seen too much of the result.

:huh:

[Nippelspanner]

Remember everyone else "sharing" the road is an idiot and they will kill you if you let them.

What a risk that driver took and for what to arrive 20 seconds sooner.
This is so true.
I am driving to Hamburg on a regular basis, round about 60km. The crap I see on this short trip (45-60minutes) is amazing and brought me to the very same conclusion: Do not rely on anyone here, keep your distance, keep your concentration up, enjoy a safe trip... while on the left lane a lunatic races by with ~200km/h while the streets are wet and rainy, visibility is low... wtf hello!?? :doh:

Just go and shoot yourself in some backyard if you can't wait... but don't try to kill others on the streets damnit...

[Tango589]

I drive by the rule 'might is right'and always let the big stuff go first, unless I'm pulling away from light next to a big-rigs' cab and can out-pace him before the lanes merge into one. On a multi-laned roundabout NEVER try overtaking a lorry if you're both going right as he will very quickly take your road. I've seen this happen and the result was not pretty.

[Aktungbby]

I believe my grandfather once said to my mother when she was learning to drive that one should drive as if there was the possibility to run into a copulating elephant around the next corner.

http://thumb7.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/502240/502240,1295614726,1/stock-photo-elephant-cartoon-sit-and-smiling-69441616.jpg "MUSTH" we really go that route?:woot:

[Garion]

At the Scottish Police College we were taught that 'Green meant GO, but only if it was safe to do so'.

This lesson I have passed on to my family as they were learning to drive.

The ones I really hate are the pedestrians who just walk out onto a Zebra crossing without looking. I have locked horns with a few of them with my trusty Highway Code Book :know:

Cheers

Gary

[MH]

The reason here in Israel there is this blinking green light before it changes to yellow and red.
This is the signal to accelerate and run over.:haha:

[Jimbuna]

At the Scottish Police College we were taught that 'Green meant GO, but only if it was safe to do so'.

This lesson I have passed on to my family as they were learning to drive.

The ones I really hate are the pedestrians who just walk out onto a Zebra crossing without looking. I have locked horns with a few of them with my trusty Highway Code Book :know:

Cheers

Gary

Not forgetting the stupid buggas who jump the light even though your within fifty yards of them with blues and twos sounding and flashing.

I always reckoned they ga,bled that the patrol car was going to something far more urgent and serious than their traffic offence.

[Stealhead]

Shame there was not a red light camera taking pictures so a violation notice and fine could be mailed to the owner of the truck. What I don't understand is drivers who depend on their CDL to survive drive like idiots. It does not take much to lose their safety rating and get black balled by companies offering loads to transport.

I did not notice any cameras at this light at least in this area of Kentucky I was in which was around Hopkinsville there do not seem to be many of the cameras.Just down the road in Clarksville,TN they have them at most intersections.

This guy was most likely a local and knows what lights have a camera.

The truck I was driving does have a crash camera that records in a loop so it did get recorded but of course got over written 15 or 20 seconds later whatever the loop setting is.

Here is one recording a driver not paying attention to what is up the road (both trucks and the cam one is going a bit fast for snow) anyway the run on a loop and then record over again.they also record inside sound that way you can tell I guess if the driver was asleep as well as their preferred cuss words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce9lF_9m7yQ


I was thinking about getting a go camera and mounting that in the cab some place to record stuff for the heck of it.I got the idea from a guy in Washington that drives a log truck course he has much better sights to record driving up and down log roads.

[swamprat69er]

Here is one recording a driver not paying attention to what is up the road (both trucks and the cam one is going a bit fast for snow) anyway the run on a loop and then record over again.they also record inside sound that way you can tell I guess if the driver was asleep as well as their preferred cuss words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce9lF_9m7yQ


That was in northwestern Ontario. I run that road almost every day in the summer time. The guy passing the plow was charged, after the cops found him.

[Jimbuna]

That was in northwestern Ontario. I run that road almost every day in the summer time. The guy passing the plow was charged, after the cops found him.

That looked pretty scary, the outcome could have been a lot worse.

[swamprat69er]

IMHO the guy passing the plow had no business being where he was and should have waited until there was a better spot to pass. Guard rails on both sides with fairly steep drop off. Those guard rails are to keep cars on the road, not trucks. They only come up to your knees.

[Jimbuna]

I bet the crap in the cab came up to the knees as well :)

[swamprat69er]

I bet the crap in the cab came up to the knees as well :)
No doubt.