My First Hard Braking Incident

There I was, rolling through Denver on I-25 in slow stop-and-go traffic at about 10 miles per hour. Traffic stopped again, and four wheelers did stupid 4-wheeler things, shifting lanes rapidly as traffic slowed, to try to gain traffic position. A car moved out of my lane, giving me a clear view of a brown Bronco about a hundred feet in front of me.

No problem. Ease on the brakes, plenty of room to stop. The reverse lights of the Bronco turned on.

Not knowing WHAT THE FORK the moron was thinking about doing, I hard braked.

Boxes of saltines bounced down from the upper bunk. he trash can, big cooler, and five gallon bucket decided to rearrange themselves in the cab. My paperwork on the passenger seat scattered itself over the seat and the little cooler in front of that seat.

I came to a complete stop in just a few feet. The Bronco still had it's reverse lights on, but hadn't backed up. I looked closer, and watched the Bronco move in traffic for a couple stop-go cycles. They weren't reverse lights. The moron had replaced the red braking lights with white lights.

So, I got my first hard braking event because some idiot decided to fix his car when stoned. Or something.

Fortunately, I was empty, and my speed was low enough that the trailer was never in any real danger of breaking loose from the road.

Oh man, better start looking for another job!!

Denver is one of the worst major cities to drive in, IMO. I have had several close calls there over the past few months. People cut me off there more than almost anywhere else in the country, seriously.

Yeah, he probably did "fix" those lights while stoned. Last stats I saw said 1 in 6 adults in Colorado smoke pot regularly.

Or it could be that the cops knocked out his taillights. They used to do that in Colorado Springs to released felons so they always have an excuse to pull them over. Usually just one taillight, though.

Should have called the state troopers on that bronco.

What do you mean incident? Lol

Getting one is no big deal. Just slow down and give more distance. In stop and go traffic I would be back so far my trainer got annoyed saying I was going backwards cause they jump in front of me. So what. I'm not going anywhere....so let them have the extra feet.

You didn't hit him so good job!

I'll clarify. I didn't hit them. I didn't even come close to hitting them. My following distance was fine, but when I saw reverse lights in front of me on the interstate , it was an ohsnit! moment.

I did get a call from Stevens Transport Safety department though. They do track hard braking incidents. The safety person I spoke to advised that there is a strong data correlation between drivers who generate multiple hard braking incidents and drivers who are involved in serious accidents.

No risk to my job with only one hard braking incident, but if I were to get several of them in a month or two, I'd probably get a camera installed and a severe talking-to. There is a point at which they will fire drivers for excessive hard braking incidents, but I didn't get any numbers on that.

The safety person I spoke to advised that there is a strong data correlation between drivers who generate multiple hard braking incidents and drivers who are involved in serious accidents.

Interesting. Good to know. I got a hard braking event when I accidentally locked up my drives while bobtailing in the rain. That's the only one I've got in 10 months of driving. They're pretty easy to avoid most of the time. I probably would have done the same thing you did in your scenario.

Lol i got one in baltimore last week when a doofus ran right in front of me then slammed on the brakes. It happens.

Ive only had 2 in 9 months so i dont worry too much about it.

I've had a few, mostly when I was empty and overestimated the brakes. One while loaded when I got cut off in a construction zone.

But I've only ever been called by safety once about a hard braking event. And the guy said I actually did everything right but they had to call because DriveCam sent them the video. It was when an SUV cut me off while I was looking at my mirror in order to make a lane change. Luckily, I was empty so I was able to stop, but everything off the bunk went flying into the floor.