Defeated A Dragon!!

Old hwy 129 in eastern Tennessee. Its known as the dragons tail.

Saw a TV show that had it rated as one of the five deadliest roads in the world.(motorcycle wrecks) Lots of YouTube videos on the road. All kinds of signs advising trucks to find an alternative route. ( which of course I ignored)

I will NEVER do that again. Talk about watching your mirrors. Wow what a road.

Funniest part of the whole thing was telling my dispatcher and him laughing his ass off at me.

Really should close that road to trucks. I was touching both white lines several times.

I know the road and did it on purpose. Just wanted to say I had taken a 53 footer through there.

Got whiplash from checking mirrors and my back hurts from having my butt clinched up for 45 minutes.

Chris, man, I'm glad you had fun but I also think you need to re-evaluate how you operate.

Remember, it takes one mistake and it can mean the death of someone innocent or you. It's very easy to get terminated in trucking because any accident is a costly one.

You need to go about your day doing the safest thing possible especially if you just came out of school not long ago. The less risks you take and the better your decisions are, the more likely you will be accident free. Unfortunately, it's decisions like these that usually bite the driver in the ass.

My advice to you would be to always follow signs and take the safest road available. Sure you got a thrill out of it, but it won't always end that way.

And lastly, don't get a big head about yourself because you "accomplished" this. Don't go about your day thinking you're better than anyone else or you have it all figured out. I know this probabaly isn't you but It's very easy to develop an ego in this industry. Unfortunately, trucking has a way of always putting us back in our place.

Chris, in a way I know where you're coming from. I've done a lot of things over the years that entail pushing the limits to see what you're capable of. Things like snowboarding, riding dirtbikes, and driving race cars. The thrill of not knowing if you can pull something off pushes adrenaline junkies to try some crazy stuff.

But when you're trucking you want to "flip the switch" to safety mode. You want to go from making decisions like a daredevil to making decisions like a scared old lady. The thrill in trucking comes from taking an already super dangerous job and doing it safely day in and day out. Instead of finding a daring strategy and trying to pull it off, you want to take the most risk-free strategy you can think of and execute it flawlessly.

I'm sure glad you made it through there safely and without getting any tickets. But that would certainly be considered a stunt in the trucking world and that's one world you want to avoid any stunts altogether. From now on when you're planning your day to day activities you should remind yourself, "I'm a scared old lady!" and always do the safest, surest thing you can think of.

When you get home you can strap on some gear and go out and do some crazy stuff. You might even find me out there doing some crazy stuff myself. But when you're in that truck you want to plan the most boring day imaginable. A boring day in trucking is a good day.

You ignored the signs? Really? Every year someone dies on the Dragon because a trucker ignored the signs. You shouldn't be proud.

That road is closed to trucks over a certain length. You got lucky that there was no accident. Pushing your luck is ok but not with a road like that.

Just looked it up that road is closed to trucks over 30 feet

Not a single sign about it being closed to trucks. Signs that say you might want to find an alternative route but not closed.

That was my whole point of the post. It should be closed to trucks.

Where did you look it up at pat?

It has been closed to trucks over 30 feet from the NC side for years. Late last year Tennessee also voted to ban trucks late last year. They were supposed to have the signs up by mid-January.

Whether you saw the signs or not it shows poor judgement risking the equipment of your company and the lives of other motorists. Next time you see a sign saying trucks should seek an alternate route I hope you do it.

You ignored the signs? Really? Every year someone dies on the Dragon because a trucker ignored the signs. You shouldn't be proud.

Its not closed to trucks.

Every year someone dies because the speed limit is 20-30 mph and they speed up and down that road. That is not the truck drivers fault its their own.

And I am proud because it was perfectly legal and a hella piece of driving on my part.

It certainly is closed and has been on the North Carolina side for years.

It certainly is closed and has been on the North Carolina side for years.

https://news.tn.gov/node/13281

It has been closed to trucks over 30 feet from the NC side for years. Late last year Tennessee also voted to ban trucks late last year. They were supposed to have the signs up by mid-January.

What is "supposed" to happen and what is there is two different things.

Whether you saw the signs or not it shows poor judgement risking the equipment of your company and the lives of other motorists. Next time you see a sign saying trucks should seek an alternate route I hope you do it.

I saw ALL the signs. Also I admit it wasn't the smartest thing to do. The next time I will seek an alternative route.