[instarx]

Originally Posted by Christ

Yep, and you'd have a better chance of getting shot by a woman after having a sex change operation while watching an episode of "pinks"...

Seriously, you're in no more danger being between two trucks than you are being in general populous of traffic.

Not true. Trucks can neither stop as quickly nor swerve as quickly as a car. Additionally, truck drivers are much more likely than a typical car driver to be dead tired and not paying attention.

In fact, I'd venture to say you're in less danger, considering the number of times you hear about accidents even involving a truck, versus the number of times you hear about accidents involving a car and no trucks.

There are many more cars than trucks, so of course you hear about more car accidents - so this is hardly "evidence". A little bit of googling finds the statistic that trucks account for 7% of all highway miles driven, yet have 8% of the accidents*. This means trucks are 12% more likely to be in accidents than cars.

An even more telling statistic from the same article is that for every 160 car-car accidents there are 32 truck-car accidents. Since trucks only account for 7% of highway miles driven this means that trucks are vastly more dangerous to be around than cars.

*Clarke, R.M., Safety considerations associated with truck size and weights policy deliberations. SAE Technical Paper Series No. 982818, 1998

Saying that they might do it "on purpose" is just saddening.. Do you really think that someone would not only risk their own life, but their own livelihood over being mad at you?

You do realize that there are so many people on the road that watch trucks so closely that if they make a single incorrect move, their dispatchers get 10 calls about it... imagine what would happen if a truck intentionally caused an accident involving potential vehicular manslaughter... and the fact that it would be premeditated makes it murder.

Absolutely some drivers will do it on purpose. I have been assualted twice by trucks because I was doing something they did not like. All they have to do is slam on the brakes or change lanes while you are beside them and its your word aganst them (if you are even still alive to claim otherwise). I'm absolutely positive that many people each year are assaulted and possibly killed by truck drivers, but there is no way to prove it. This is not a blanket indictment of truck drivers. Many of my family have been drivers and they are good people. But just as in the general population, some truck drivers are mean *******s.

C'mon.. if the trucker sneezes wrong, he loses his CDL for life. Too many people (including the bad truckers) give truckers a bad rep.

Although it has become harder to do since 9/11, truck drivers often have multiple licenses in several states. They may lose one license, but they just use another and keep on driving. The ease of identity theft these days also makes the threat of losing a license not as big a deterrent as you seem to think it is. The idea that if a truck driver loses his license his career is over is baloney.

Oh, and before you say I don't know what I'm talking about, I grew up in a trucking family and my grandfather, father and uncle were owner-operators.