Friday, September 13, 2013

Self Pwnage is best served COLD

Behold the world's worst driver

Semi Truck Drivers Really?


First for some fun, let's count how many driving infractions you can spot here!!!


And let's not forget this pot of gold.  Way to keep them eyes on the road.

She looked down for a total of 3.5 seconds.
at 55 mph this is about 35 yards.  Over a third of a football field.

The crux of this video was her complaint that she was passing truck drivers on the right as she was approaching a construction zone at 70 mph.  Her rant was how unsafe the truck drivers are on the road.  I swear I am not making this up.  

Now anyone who has ever driven on the highways of America knows when they do highway construction they close off one lane and force traffic to use the other lanes.  As you approach the construction zone, you see several signs including signs such as these




Ok so the last one was a joke but another thing you usually see is ahead of the construction zone all the truck drivers start heading over to the lane that is open.  The reason they do this is because of CB radios.  Truck drivers know in advance which lane is going to be open and they are the first ones to merge into the correct lane.  This is what this lady was referring to.  Then you will see cars passing truckers on the right trying to cut in front of them before the lane ends.  Such as this example below

(FYI technically this is a photo relating to a dump truck protest
but it illustrates my point as I could not find a better picture.
You can see the cars passing on the right, which is what this
lady was doing at 70 mph into a construction zone)

Now usually what I would do is I would leave a gap wide enough for a semi truck to fit through between myself and the vehicle in front of me.  As a result a lot of people would cut in front of me.  Naturally, this got me a lot of heat from my fellow drivers on the CB radio.  Sadly, there are some truck drivers who like to lock into a convoy and refuse to allow anyone to cut in front of them.  I can understand their logic.  Nobody likes to be cut off in traffic.  The drivers who refuse to allow anyone to cut in front of them could possibly think that they are "educating" these car drivers.  I disagree with their logic.

With driver complaint hotlines on the back of every trailer, it is pointless to try to "educate" a bad driver.  All a bad driver has to do is call in and complain and boom a professional driver's job is at risk.  Especially now that everyone has cell phones with video technology.  Video never lies and the safety department will terminate any driver they view as a potential accident risk.

So I say to the truck drivers, don't let the bad drivers get to you.  It is called defensive driving for a reason. Yes, it is a pain when people cut you off in traffic, but just ease up on the accelerator and let them in.  We all know how hard truck drivers have it, but as the citizenry becomes more and more tech savvy, it just isn't worth risking your job over.

Finally to this lady.  Vlogging while driving is DANGEROUS.  You honestly can't wait until you are parked to make your video?  Yes I am aware that some truck drivers do this too, and I am calling them out as well. It is dangerous.  It is distracted driving.  I know ShayCarl makes it look cool, but I can only hope he doesn't cause an accident and injure one of his children.  

Get a spill proof container, with a straw if you need to something to drink on the road.  Keep those hands on the wheel.  Buckle that seatbelt.  And for the love of everything please turn off your camera and keep your eyes on the road before you kill someone.

Yes, I know this video is a year old, but it is currently blowing up now thanks to 593films who first posted it to his followers and now every truck driver is weighing in on this.  If you were not such a distracted driver then perhaps you would have read those signs warning you of the upcoming construction zone.  If you would have merged with traffic when you were supposed to, you would not have been fighting with truck drivers to cut in front of them.  

Finally, 70 mph is NOT acceptable for a construction zone.  Although some states do vary, most highway construction zones are set to 45 mph.  (For my international readers 70 and 45 miles per hour are 112 kph and 72 respectively.)

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