Very Close Call

Last Saturday night I was driving from Texas up to Dodge City, KS. While still in Oklahoma on a two lane road I crested a hill and another truck was almost upon me. It was 3/4 of the way into my lane. One of those situations where you don’t have time to think, just act. I was lucky that there was a decent shoulder to swerve onto. All I remember now is seeing the truck and then seeing his chicken lights on my left in a blurr. Most of this highway has no shoulder; the grass comes right up to the side of the lane. If this had happened elsewhere, I probably would have rolled over. Like I said, I was very lucky this time. After the other truck passed me, I looked back to see if it had continued off the road and crashed. Apparently, the other driver recovered because the truck kept going with it’s impaired driver.

I’ll never know why the other driver was in my lane. Fell asleep? Distracted? Drunk? Drugs?

I’m thankful to still be alive. Another reminder that life can be very tentative and how dangerous driving is.

Also hoping everybody who reads this is safe and sound.

What had been your closest call while driving?

Wow, thank God you were able to avoid a collision. Were there raised reflectors in the center line? I have cars and trucks drift into my lane from time to time but just a little bit and when they hit those reflectors it seems to get their attention.

I've had a few, but one that sticks out to me is a night I was driving on a 2 lane Street and a car attempted to go around me without checking for oncoming traffic. I had to slam the brakes because he already committed to it and wasn't going to back out.

Glad you are ok, BK.

Today another truck driver decided to pass me on a two lane highway (US-400 in KS) with less than a half mile to a marked passing lane (ie 2 miles ahead sign).

There was oncoming traffic. I braked so he could get around me in time safely.

Some people are just impatient.

When I get into the passing lanes on US-54/Us-400 I always slow down to 55-57 so others can get around me. My top speed is 62.

About a month ago and in the span of a couple weeks: Two people pulled out in front of me on the highway on seperate occasions. Some dumb hillbillies ran a red light and almost ran me over at a pedestrian crossing when I was off duty. A car passed me in a no-passing zone almost getting into a head on collision which would killed them and wrecked me.

I90 WB in Minnesota - car coming EB lost control and into the median coming straight for me. I was passing at the time, another vehicle was on my right side, so I had no options but to brace for impact. At the very last moment, the car snapped back and got back onto the EB side.

Weirdly enough, this happened a second time a few weeks later, in basically the same location.

What surprised me afterward, is how I took it in stride. Freakishly calm. No adrenaline rush. Nothing. I just said "well, that was close", thanked my angels for always doing a great job, and kept going.

Hey BK, I'm glad you came through that unscathed. I can only imagine that would have been a horrifying accident if you hadn't been able to move over quick enough.

I'm curious if your truck has a dash cam and if so, did it activate when you swerved?

I had a close call about two years ago, I was fully loaded with pallets of dairy products (Milk, Juice, Tea, etc.) I was also on a two lane road traveling north doing about 55MPH. A good way ahead, two cars pulled out of a gas station also going north. They both pulled over to the shoulder almost immediately, I presume they were following each other and discovered they turned the wrong way (they really wanted to go southbound)

I started slowing down, but no big deal, they were both safely on the side of the road at this point. I was still a safe distance away when the first car pulled a U-turn, but was getting very close when the second car also popped a U-turn directly in from of me. I was doing maybe 45 to 50 by that time and had to brake very hard and try to swerve to the center of the road, but there wasn't really anything I could do but brace for impact and hope they would stop in time. Surprisingly, the hard brake incident didn't trigger the Smart Drive camera. I asked my DM about it the next day, and there was nothing in the system. Even more surprisingly, not a single pallet shifted or spilled. I'm quite certain the woman that was driving the second car had to pull off to check her pants after seeing a semi coming directly at the side of her car on the highway.

RJ, I didn’t even think about the cameras. We have both outward and inward cameras. The incident and the swerve did not trigger a critical event notice, so I don’t know what the cameras recorded.

Since you mentioned it, I would like to see what the look on my face was when this all happened. Now that would be interesting!