This week I decided to write about bad drivers and the stupid things they do driving down a road or highway. Now being a truckdriver myself, it's not that hard to see many driving incidents on the road almost everyday. In Calgary, pedestians are struck by vehicles at least once a day! In fact over the last 10 years ending in December 2014, the city reported 3,834 pedestrian involved collisions resulting in 3,317 injuries and 95 fatalities. Unfortunately, sixteen of those were hit and run.
I see it on a regular weekly basis too, and it's not just foreign drivers who are creating a vast amount of these incidents. No, we white people are at fault too, including both men and women.
As a regular driver of the dreaded Deerfoot Highway, I see it all, and I mean everything. People not signalling from a merge lane plus not signalling when switching lanes driving at 110km per hour.
At night especially, one of my most pet peeves are people driving with no lights on or their high beams on. I don't get it, how can one not look at their dash while driving and not realize it's dark. Wouldn't that be a clue as to the fact, maybe your headlights are off and that YOU SHOULD TURN THEM ON! What about high beams? why do so many people have them on at night as I drive down the #2. I mean either a great deal of people are going blind on the roads here, or they're just too stupid to realize, high beams were never designed that way. I get it, if it's a complete dark road, such as in the country, but seriously, going down a clear highway, really?
In the city, I see such dumb things as the front of car's noses sticking out into oncoming traffic and everyone going out of turn at a 4-way Stop. Then there are the texters, weaving in and out of their lane as you try and drive by. Not to mention the red light runners, I have to watch for at intersections. Here's another assinine anology, apparently when drivers see a cop car passing them, they slam on their brakes to slow down, Why again, I do not know, but they do it here in Calgary, especially, once again on the Deerfoot. Then let's not forget those last second decision persons, that don't care who's behind them behind the wheel.
The other day, I actually saw a guy reading the newspaper and shaving while driving over the speed limit on the highway. Add that to the young lady putting on her make-up while completely oblivious of what was around her on the road.
Why are scooters on city streets, too, I mean it takes forever for them to pick up speed. And why do people drive fast through cross walks. I actually saw a car merging yesterday on the Deerfoot with the wrong signal light on. We always seem to have the tailgaters, cars making illegal U-Turns, and cyclists going down the highway the wrong way!
In fact last week, I was hauling my chickens on a busy road outside of Camrose, when I drove up a hill, I could see the deer in the middle of the road. I was probably cruising about 80 km up the hill, so I swerved slightly over to the left, to avoid hitting the animal. There barrelling at mach speed in front of me was a car, that obviously wasn't stopping. I would say, another 10 seconds, and we both would have literally ploughed head on into one another. When I saw the cherries on top, I could not believe it, a cop! The bizarre thing was he didn't even have any flashing lights on, so it was quite evident, he was speeding somewhere. Speaking of Police, why is that they have to be talking on a cell phone in their car, when I use a hand free headset in my big rig. Shouldn't distracted driving apply to them too, oh I forgot they are above the law! Thats's just a sampling of what I put up with on a regular weekly basis, and you thought that driving in your town was bad! Have a great week and slow down!
Another excerpt from my 3rd book, "Road History" this time, when I was involved in a 6 car pile-up on the Coquihalla highway when I was long hauling. I think you'll really enjoy it.
Make no bones about it, being stuck on the Coq when the temperature drops to minus 27 or so is nothing short of a battle for survival. Before driving this merciless winter highway you better have some basic essentials. These include thermoses of hot fluids, food, warm clothes, a blanket or two, flashlight with extra batteries, along with proper winter footwear. Here winter plays by its own rules and it can be pure white hell with a matter of 20 minutes. In fact, there are two enormous signs that appear on the Coq, that you can’t miss,
One oversize sign says “High Mountain Road, Sudden Winter Changes, Be Cautious” The other one that I saw just after the toll booth was “Critical Accident Zone-Lower Your Speed”
Carol and I experienced quite the freak-show on this distinct mid-December day back in 2007. I was always reluctant to travel the Coq because I heard you had to pay a toll to drive down it. Actually, the toll booth was at the highest point on the highway between the cities of Hope and Merritt. In reality, it was about 50 km north of the city of Hope. Interestingly enough the toll booth was also located at the top of the summit where the Coquihalla River and the Coldwater River divide from one another.
Nonetheless, I had just made it to the toll booth at that time, paid the exorbitant $50.00 fee for commercial trucks and asked the gal there at the booth as toward the road conditions going down the summit.
She said it should be fine, but boy was she wrong! It was maybe about a mile down, when about 500 feet in front of us, I could see quite an accident, that must have just occurred, minutes before I started my descent.
There were two four-wheelers that had veered off right off the highway and they were spread about two car lengths a piece. One was a white Chevy van and the other was a small gray ford sedan. On the one right side was a newer model Honda Ridgeline pickup that was parked in the center of the far right lane about 50 feet before the other two vehicles. Now to make matters more interesting, there was another red Toyota Corolla sedan that had hit the far left cement guardrail. It had two flat tires on the passenger side and was touching the guard-rail. I could see all this mess in front of me, and immediately I started to gear down, but little did I realize that this nice white sheet of snow I was driving on was sheer black ice underneath it! The next thing I knew was my back right side of my trailer was jackknifing towards the right side of the road, all the while we were sliding down the highway.
“Crap, Carol, this is not good”, I told her
“Try slowing down more Brian”, was her only reply.
“I am and it’s not working, I replied back to her, “hold on!” I yelled to back to her.
I was still sliding and getting closer and closer to those two vehicles, but the Honda Ridgeline was coming up fast. I grabbed onto the spike brake which I knew would exert more braking pressure on the trailer brakes. In-stantaneously I knew I had to stop the trailer from pushing the tractor so I did just that. Ultimately it was working, and the trailer was slowing down, as the next thing I concentrated was steering towards hitting the left wall, to come to a quicker stop. When it was all said and done, the tractor had come so close to the cement barricade wall, that it would be a problem just getting out of the door.
I was a tractor width away from the back of the white van closest to me, but I was now aligned beside the Honda Ridgeline. Well actually the far back corner of the trailer just behind the rearmost trailer tires, had come into contact with the driver’s door of the Honda Ridgeline. Basically, the back corner of my trailer looked like it had taken out the guys back brake lights, as well had scraped the side of the back fender which ran up all the way to the driver’s door. It looked to me like the Toyota Van had been spun around by the gray car, which had done a 180 into the right side guardrail. There was an older woman lying unconscious in a snow bank with what looked to be her husband, an older gentleman beside her. Next, there were two other people just standing in the middle of the road, taking pictures of their damaged cars. When we were finally stopped, I noticed two people outside beside their vehicles out taking pictures with their cell phones. It seemed like the old man was begging somebody to help him, whose wife might somehow have been hit by the gray car, I surmised.
Nonetheless, she definitely looked like she needed medical assistance as she wasn’t moving any. Suddenly, my Carol went absolutely commando, going on the CB and warning all the truckers coming down the summit to immediately cease and desist. Ironically those guys were listening to her, but she wasn’t done yet, her next step was to roll down the window and yell words of warnings from all the people outside their vehicles.
The first words I heard from her were “Just what the hell are you doing people?”
“Someone get a blanket and help that man with the woman in the snow, she hollered.
“The other of you people, get the hell back in your cars, there are transport trucks coming down here, what are you stupid? Carol yells out in her second statement.
Next thing, she points to one oblivious tourist who was out taking pictures of the damage to her vehicle and yelled back at her as well.
“You get the hell over there and help that poor woman lying in the snow now as well” she yells.
The weird part about it was everyone was listening to her and following her exact orders. What had been complete chaos became more of a semblance of directions now. I gotta say, I was more than impressed with Carol’s dictatorial attitude towards this dire situation. In the meantime, I had gotten out of my truck, almost landing on my ass, because I was now walking on sheer ice! As I shimmied down beside the trailer, an RCMP officer was there to greet me to find out what exactly happened.
Next, I surveyed the damage to the trailer and was completely blown away, of what little of it there was. There had only been one corner side clearance light out and a small area of about a foot of the cornerback frame of the trailer that was it! I looked at what I had done to the Honda Ridgeline and it wasn’t that damaging either. I told the officer my side of the story of what I witnessed and just some sharp dressed older aged business man that had been in the Honda Ridgeline wanted to desperately talk to the officer taking my notes. Moreover now, I was back sitting in my truck, satellite-ting an immediate “Incident Report” to my Dispatcher Bill at Dial Trucklines in Akron Iowa.
Next, I placed a cell call to my Operations Manager, Rod Booten at the Calgary Dial Yard and quickly explained to him, what had just transpired. When I was finished that call, another RCMP officer was knocking on the driver door. He was telling me that the grey-haired old fart was trying to charge me with even more damage to his piece of crap, plastic shit-mobile but I wasn’t having any of it. In fact, the cop even believed that the van could have done some the damage, I was presumed to have done. He told me that when some people are in a wreck with a commercial truck, they just see dollar signs in their eyes, and “Ka-Ching!” Next thing I saw was an ambulance driving down slowly towards the accident scene, and putting the older woman on a gurney. She was immediately wheeled into the ambulance, and the RCMP officer that took my statement motioned me to follow him to the town of Merritt where he was stationed there. After about another hour of answering questions toward the accident, it was somewhat resolved, and I was off the hook. In fact, the RCMP officer along with the other that attended the pileup commended me on my defensive driving skills and the fact that I didn’t injure or even kill someone! We were now on our way out of Merritt; no charges were laid against me, so it was on to finish the trip into Vancouver with my load.
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