18 Wheeler Trailer Overturns And Trailer Hanging Off Overpass.

You are coming across as a holier than thou, for someone who is not a driver yet. Awfully hard to preach about the drivers actions when we don't know the how's and why's, even worse is claiming the driver is reckless because he's local driver.

The news story says that the driver was cut off by a 4 wheeler, and he flipped while trying to avoid the dummy. Nothing about the story says that the truck driver was doing anything wrong. Not feeling sorry for him? You would rather see a story about him plowing over and killing someone? bad enough that he could have died, while avoiding killing someone else.

What would have been better is that he didn't get into the position where he had to make that choice. I know that it can happen to anyone that some dummy cuts you off and hits the brakes. What we don't really know here is how fast he was going and we don't know how close to the first accident they were when he swerved and we don't know what happened when the 4-wheeler cut him off. Did the 4-wheeler cut in close and slam on his brakes to avoid the accident? Don't know. I couldn't see the video so I didn't get the part about someone cutting him off.

My point is that there were probably a lot of other big trucks driving through there at the same time and they didn't wreck. Why? They probably had enough following distance to come to a safe stop.

The reason I warned my student while driving through there is that in my experience, the dirt haulers and fracking trucks tend to follow too close and drive faster than everyone else in South Texas.

I've had a number of close calls with them, including a water tanker who blew past me at about 70 mph in a no passing zone on a two-lane road while blasting his horn because I was only going 62. He barely made it back over before a truck coming the other way hit him. To make it more exciting, an idiot in a pickup truck was passing me on the right shoulder and competing for the space just in front of my truck at the same time.

That's just the most memorable of six or seven similar experiences I've had driving south of I-10 in Texas. Every one of them involved either a water tanker, a dry bulk carrier, or a side or end dump.

So, it could be that I'm jumping to conclusions unfairly about this driver, but it also seems very possible to me that the guy was tailgating and didn't leave enough room to avoid the situation that developed in front of him. I've seen it frequently in that part of Texas with those kinds of trucks.

I would say the same thing about container drivers on I-16, side dumps in Denver, and LTL drivers on I-80 from Utah through Nebraska. I'm sure that most are not driving that way, but when you notice it so much that you take a mental note to watch out for them, maybe there's a good reason for that.

I'm not saying i'm a better driver, what I am saying is that there are numerous things he could have and should have done that he probably didn't do that could have prevented this.

Also like bud a said, these bad driving habits seems to be a trait of these south / central tx local drivers hauling dirt, water and gravel. They want to get that extra load in so they drive reckless to get there faster, in the end this guy (who may or may not have been doing so) ended up in an accident and now he not only made less money that day than if he had taken precautions to avoid the accident but he's probably gonna lose his job for that one. That part of i10 is only 60mph, which means as a trucker he should have only been doing 55 (5mph less than speed limit is what my school is teaching us) but you know the last time I saw a gravel truck do even less than 65 on that stretch? never, they pass me if traffic allows it and I do 65 (speeding but I call "flow of traffic" defense).

There's a lot we don't know but there's a lot we can make educated guesses on. I'm willing to bet $20 that if there was camera or something else (logs recording engine data) he was not being a safe driver. I would bet he was either speeding, following to close, not paying attention, etc or all of the above.

My accusation come from seeing how these people drive with my own eyes as someone who lives in san antonio. I am a big time rule following type so you won't see me following to close, speeding, etc in a truck, it aint worth the ticket and or loss of job.

If you look at the truck, that is a true owner operator. Probably running under his own authority. He is not going to lose his job. I only know of one fleet that fixes up their trucks like that but they are even nicer looking trucks than that one even. So your hopes of him losing his job are probably all for nothing.

If you look at the truck, that is a true owner operator. Probably running under his own authority. He is not going to lose his job. I only know of one fleet that fixes up their trucks like that but they are even nicer looking trucks than that one even. So your hopes of him losing his job are probably all for nothing.

hard to have a truck driving job with a wrecked truck... he may not be fired but he won't be able to work either.

It's called insurance. He has to have it.

This mess looks like it could totally have been prevented. And the truck driver was in the best position to prevent it. This could have been so much worse. Just goes to show you there are some real loose nuts behind the wheels.

I'm not saying i'm a better driver, what I am saying is that there are numerous things he could have and should have done that he probably didn't do that could have prevented this.

Also like bud a said, these bad driving habits seems to be a trait of these south / central tx local drivers hauling dirt, water and gravel. They want to get that extra load in so they drive reckless to get there faster, in the end this guy (who may or may not have been doing so) ended up in an accident and now he not only made less money that day than if he had taken precautions to avoid the accident but he's probably gonna lose his job for that one. That part of i10 is only 60mph, which means as a trucker he should have only been doing 55 (5mph less than speed limit is what my school is teaching us) but you know the last time I saw a gravel truck do even less than 65 on that stretch? never, they pass me if traffic allows it and I do 65 (speeding but I call "flow of traffic" defense).

There's a lot we don't know but there's a lot we can make educated guesses on. I'm willing to bet $20 that if there was camera or something else (logs recording engine data) he was not being a safe driver. I would bet he was either speeding, following to close, not paying attention, etc or all of the above.

My accusation come from seeing how these people drive with my own eyes as someone who lives in san antonio. I am a big time rule following type so you won't see me following to close, speeding, etc in a truck, it aint worth the ticket and or loss of job.

Phox, Try not to judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes. Things look very different from the first seat than they do from the classroom.

Phox i'm confused were you in that truck or following right behind it? you seem to know a lot about this. I drive trucks have been around truckers and worked on trucks my entire life it is usally the four wheelers fault

My company informs us about pending lawsuits so we can learn from them.

One lawsuit is a couple who lost control of their vehicle, bounced of an interstate wall, and then was hit by our truck because they were flailing around in the road. The lawsuit claims that our truck was responsible for their injuries because before being hit by us they were uninjured. At any chance one gets the trucker will always be made to look like he's at fault because it's fashionable to do so cus big scary trucks. Don't take what you hear from media or hearsay at face value.

If you really want to know whos at fault wait for more accurate information or file for the accident report once its public domain.