Close Call

Almost had a nasty accident last night.

I was deadheading on a national highway going through a small town, speed limit 45 mph, two lanes in my direction of travel. Around 2200 or 2300 local time, so it was pretty dark. There was another semi a couple hundred feet behind me, loaded somewhat light I'm guessing based on his driving (been behind me for quite a while).

This mustang starts passing me slowly in the left lane, then very suddenly cuts about 50 ft in front me (no exaggeration) and hits his brakes, hard. For a split second I thought this was some twisted form of insurance fraud. I hit my brakes hard, then let off and floored the accelerator while I swerved into the left lane. I came within about 10 ft of his bumper. As I got into the left lane, he put on his right turn signal and turned. As he turned, I swerved back into the right lane to balance myself. All of this happened in about 2 seconds. Thankfully, I remembered to activate the drivecam at the end of the maneuver.

I was stunned, shaken, and felt like a rockstar all at the same time.

Stunned--that someone could do something so unbelievably stupid.

Shaken--if I'd been loaded to 43k like I am now, this story might have had a different ending. I could have easily rolled over, or worse, had some mustang for dinner.

Rockstar status--I timed it so perfectly I didn't set off any of the sensors in my truck, didn't roll over, didn't hit the guy, didn't get rear-ended.

I've seen some crazy behavior the last few months, but this one takes the cake.

Nobody wants to ever be in an accident, especially one caused by the stupidity of another driver and get into the situation where somebody could get hurt or killed. As horrible as this is going to sound, don't swerve. Your responsibility is to maintain your lane at all costs. If it means colliding with a vehicle then so be it but if you swerve and roll the trick or worse, it is entirely your fault in the eyes of the insurance company and unfortunately the company you drive for as well. People will say you did the right thing by avoiding it and saving the lives of the car responsible but good luck explaining that one to your next potential employer.

Your responsibility is to maintain your lane at all costs. If it means colliding with a vehicle then so be it...

Yes, this does sound horrible. I hope you're wrong about this, because if you're not I might just lose my job if this sort of thing happens again and I do have an accident. I'd rather lose my job than kill someone, no matter what the insurance companies say.

Your responsibility is to maintain your lane at all costs. If it means colliding with a vehicle then so be it

Robert, are you serious about that? Why maintain your lane at the expense of hitting a vehicle from the rear when the other lane is clear and you can safely move over into it? That is what Paul did, and it saved his bacon. He clearly stated he was dead heading, so he was not loaded and likely to roll his truck in that scenario.

I would say it is your responsibility to be safe at all costs, not so much to maintain your lane.

We all agree that you don't want to jerk the wheel into a serve maneuver at higher speeds, but Paul was in a 45 mph speed zone, and if I know him, he was doing that or less when all this took place.

Paul, it has become a trained habit of mine that almost anytime I see a car passing me I have my foot on the brake pedal ready for action. Often times I just go ahead and start slowing down while they are coming around me. Vigilance will keep you alive in this business.

If we're supposed to maintain our lane, then why do all the manuals teach us to steer then counter steer in a situation like this? Just asking.

The problem being that the maneuver may in fact be worse. A rollover can be an even worse outcome than a rear end collision. If the truck were to land on another vehicle or end up running through a business because of loss of control. It does sound harsh but natural selection is real. I do not want to kill anyone either (well maybe a couple of them) but I am not going to go into a deep depression because they did something stupid either.

In the end it is your call. I have gone around things too but you have to be aware that the lane is clear.

I know they teach the steer and countersteer maneuver but I have always been told the same as Robert. Maintain your lane and try to slow down as much as you can.

Now that being said if I thought I could safely do it I would do the same thing. The biggest thing that is going to affect that is how heavy you are and how the truck is loaded. I even told my trainer one time while we were talking about it going thru all kinds of hypothetical situations that if I had a choice I'm going to wreck the truck before I kill someone.

The way we were taught in school is that the only thing you ever swerve for is a human life. Other than that, maintain your lane and start slowing down by whatever means. It's better to hit something than potentially cause more damage by losing control of the truck.

All of that said, it's a hard instinct to train out. The wanting to swerve away from danger.

And I agree with OS. If I see someone trying to pass, I let off the accelerator and move over to the right as far as possible and have my foot over the brake just in case.

But Paul I think you did the right thing in those circumstances. You had the truck under control at all times and you didn't hit anything. It's a win-win.

Ok I see where you guys are coming from now. Yeah it was a judgement call. I don't know exactly what I would've done if I'd been loaded heavy. I was driving by the seat of my pants, so to speak, so it would've depended in how it felt. I'm not so sure I would've swerved, though.

I based my decision on how it felt and the physics involved, considering I was dead-heading:

1--Slam on the brakes, but only for a split second. This slows you down, leaving LOTS of forward momentum. Even empty, the tractor-trailer combo still weighs 34K. The forward momentum of the trailer is what causes the trailer to jackknife, especially when it's empty due to less traction, since those tandems are more likely to lock up.

2--Let off the brakes and floor it as you move into the other lane. Swerve as little as possible. Hitting the accelerator is the key to avoiding the rollover. I had to hit the brakes in step 1 to avoid rear-ending the idiot; but if I move over without accelerating, the momentum of the trailer will keep pushing it straight forward, out from behind the tractor. Then it would pull the tractor along with it and the whole thing would topple. I have to brake and then accelerate so I can pull the trailer into the left lane and keep it behind me, not let it push me.

3--Countersteer. The counter steering wasn't 100% necessary in this case because I was able to execute steps 1 and 2 really effectively, but it still helps. When you move quickly into a different lane, momentum causes the trailer to try to keep going in a straight line. If I move out of that straight line, moving back into it helps keep that trailer behind the tractor.

Like I said, I don't know if this would've worked with a heavy trailer. A 60K trailer at 45 mph has a heck of a lot more momentum than 17K at the same speed. I could probably slow it down pretty well in step 1, but I probably couldn't accelerate faster enough in step 2 to keep the trailer behind me.

Staying in my lane would've worked a lot better with a loaded trailer though since I'd be less likely to jackknife. I might kiss the guys bumper, but with the added traction from all that weight, I probably (hopefully) wouldn't kill anyone.

Sorry, I'm sure you guys already know all this--just thinking out loud I guess.