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Old 12-04-2008, 07:29 PM   #31 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by Christ View Post
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.

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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

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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.

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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.


Last edited by instarx; 12-04-2008 at 08:11 PM..
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Old 12-04-2008, 07:44 PM   #32 (permalink)
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Any of your statistics tell you that the ignorant driver in the car was at primary fault for any given percentage of those accidents involving trucks?

You're correct in saying that a truck can't maneuver in any way as fast as a car can. What this proves is that the general public is absolutely INCORRECT in blaming truckers for a large number of the accidents they're INVOLVED IN (not caused.) The fact that any rational human being can understand that the truck can't maneuver faster than they can means that they should also understand (as a "good" driver), that they're going to have to pay an ever increasing amount of attention to what's going on around them, so that they can assure their own reaction will not be the one that causes said trucker to make a potentially fatal maneuver.

Go ahead, keep thinking you're unsafe around truckers. Leaves more room for me.
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Old 12-04-2008, 07:53 PM   #33 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by i_am_socket View Post
I've never seen a tire blow on a truck, but I did see one 2 months ago where the wheels were compressed against the bottom of the box and smoking like a fiend (also covered in that mythbusters episode, I believe), so I guess I saw the pre-blown condition.
Because truck tires are so expensive they are almost always recapped when the tread is worn, particlarly trailer tires. These recaps are prone to tread separation when the tires are underinflated or get hot for other reasons. That is why you see so many truck-tire treads on the side of the interstates.
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Old 12-04-2008, 08:18 PM   #34 (permalink)
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Any of your statistics tell you that the ignorant driver in the car was at primary fault for any given percentage of those accidents involving trucks?
Any reasonable person would assume that ignorant/dangerous car drivers would be just as ignorant/dangerous around other cars as they were around trucks.

You made something up off the top of your head and you were wrong - just admit it.

Last edited by instarx; 12-04-2008 at 08:32 PM..
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Old 12-04-2008, 10:53 PM   #35 (permalink)
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Old 12-05-2008, 12:33 AM   #36 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by instarx View Post
Because truck tires are so expensive they are almost always recapped when the tread is worn, particlarly trailer tires. These recaps are prone to tread separation when the tires are underinflated or get hot for other reasons. That is why you see so many truck-tire treads on the side of the interstates.
What about the large single drive tires? Do they re-tread those? I've never gotten a straight answer on this, but I'd hate to see one of those treads blow, it's like 30-36" wide.

That would be like a sheet of steel and rubber coming at you.

Also, it's *technically* illegal to run re-treads on steer tires. FYI, to those that didn't know.
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Old 12-05-2008, 01:50 AM   #37 (permalink)
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I don't normally draft 'dirty trucks' or anything else, but...

Yesterday, I got behind a Prevost H-Series with a rubber skirt all the way to the pavement.

Dude, that rawked!

It was like running behind a 350-pound offensive lineman - nobody got in 'our' way!!!

We split traffic like Moses parting the Red Sea... 65 MPH in a construction zone!

EDIT2

Gotta love the web (first edit I said "looked like this but it had a Black Diamond logo")...



How can you NOT draft this bad boy???

I was having lurid pornographic fantasies about driving it, instead of my Honda CiViC!

My ride was about the same height as his fender wells...
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Old 12-05-2008, 11:16 AM   #38 (permalink)
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I was having lurid pornographic fantasies about driving it, instead of my Honda CiViC!
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Old 12-05-2008, 10:37 PM   #39 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Christ View Post
Any of your statistics tell you that the ignorant driver in the car was at primary fault for any given percentage of those accidents involving trucks?
Are you talking about the type of ignorant drivers that stay sandwiched between 2 trucks??

We have come full circle. Case closed.

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