Close Call

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.

Same here. Never swerve for an animal...ok, maybe mustangs haha

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.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Old School. I was going just under 45.

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.

This will be my newest habit.

Very serious OS and as a matter of fact, Knights policy is that they would rather you trade paint as opposed to swerving , potentially rolling the truck or whatever else could happen by you leaving your lane in an attempt to avoid an accident. This isn't heresay either. I had a situation where a vehicle did something similar but the movement was enough to trigger the stability control in the truck. I received a phone call about the incident, was told not to swerve and why and had to sit through a short lecture at the terminal explaining why they prefer you to swap paint.

A swerve is an S-turn, like first left then swing right. An S turn is the most dangerous maneuver you can do in a truck. It's like what happens with a whip. In a truck the center of gravity is higher than a car, which makes the situation worse, and you just might roll over to the outside on the second part of the turn.

If you are looking far enough ahead, and keeping track of the cars around you and always watching for your exit lane, you can make a move to get out of the way. But any quick turn (Old School mentions "jerking the wheel") is dangerous in its own right. Adding the one-two punch with a quick swerve, and you are going to be in more trouble than you expected.

I stand corrected on my choice of terminology. In my particular case, I had moved over for law enforcement who was helping another motorist. I had already slowed with the flow of traffic and had more than ample space between myself and the next truck in front of me. I was checking my mirrors for traffic on my blind side that might be waiting until the last minute to get over but traffic was meeting behind me. A driver who was behind was impatient, came back out in the right hand lane and passed me, apparently unaware that the troopers car was hugging the line and they cut back over in front of me close enough that all I saw was the top of their car and then jammed on the brakes. I looked right and abruptly changed lanes to avoid a collision. Even with the entire thing on camera as well as an officer who would have made a very good witness, I was told by safety that I should have maintained my lane.

I stand corrected on my choice of terminology. In my particular case, I had moved over for law enforcement who was helping another motorist. I had already slowed with the flow of traffic and had more than ample space between myself and the next truck in front of me. I was checking my mirrors for traffic on my blind side that might be waiting until the last minute to get over but traffic was meeting behind me. A driver who was behind was impatient, came back out in the right hand lane and passed me, apparently unaware that the troopers car was hugging the line and they cut back over in front of me close enough that all I saw was the top of their car and then jammed on the brakes. I looked right and abruptly changed lanes to avoid a collision. Even with the entire thing on camera as well as an officer who would have made a very good witness, I was told by safety that I should have maintained my lane.

Huh. Were you empty or loaded? I guess I can see why in that particular situation maybe.

I don't know, but there's a reason I made sure I got it on video. I'm going to call my DM tomorrow and see what she says about it. It still was one of those "you had to be there" situations.

What was their reason for saying you should have just risked hitting the guy?

I'm not sure if my company would prefer that you have an accident when you could avoid it. In fact I'm pretty sure they want you to avoid it. But they do say that if someone does something like cutting you off, they'd prefer you have an accident with that person than one with someone you swerved in to (because, obviously, then it could become your fault).

D*mn!

The explanation they gave was a pretty sound argument (my load was around 25k) but that you should always drive as if you're loaded heavy. In the event you contact another vehicle and you're maintaining your lane, the odds are much better that you will stay in that lane until stopped and not involve other vehicles. When you leave your lane, you risk upsetting the load which can roll the vehicle or make it unstable and lose control possibly leaving the road altogether. There was an accident involving a big truck a few weeks ago in the news where the driver attempted to avoid a vehicle, left the pavement and lost control, he wound up in a house, killing the homeowner.