WADS56 I have driven since I was 15 and am now 45 and I also have had some trouble with truck drivers. On a dry road they are not a problem because it is usually easy to keep away from them. On a wet or snowy road they can safely drive faster than a car due to the superior visibility and traction when compared to a car. On ice they are as difficult or more difficult to drive than a car. I drove trucks from 1994 to 2000 including double and triple trailers and tankers. I have been in rainstorms running in the left lane at 65 while most cars are in the right lane doing 40, not all are smart enough to get over though and will run 40 in the left lane of 4 or 5 lanes.I taught in a truck driving school for about 3 months and I could not handle the level of idiot students coming in there including 10 per cent of an U.S.S.R. backround that could barely speak english. Truckers are for the most part underpaid and overworked. When they come up on cars driving slower than them and try to pass them half the time the car will speed up. You will be going down a mountain weighing 78,000 lbs and have a car come on the freeway in front of you doing 40 mph.While they are on the road if they are married thier wifes will call them with all kinds of bad news, accuse them of cheating, etc. Dispatchers lie to them, they can't find a place to park, they have a logging system that forces them to cheat or drive sleepy, which can end up getting them fined. And one of the guys mentioned that alot of them are bottom dwellers or something, well alot of them are! So think twice before you mess with one! My advice, do what I do and stay the heck away from big trucks when you are driving. It is fine to follow them in the same lane because if there is a wreck ahead or something most of them will know before they get there by listening to the CB. Just don't follow a truck that is in the right lane and you are in the left lane, at night this means your lights are right in his mirror and even in the daytime when a car followed me in the left lane I would move over in front of him so they would not get up along side me right when I needed to get over. Lastly, unless you have driven an 18 wheeler for a couple years you have no idea of what goes on. As far as my driving record. One ticket in a big truck, no logbook violations or failed inspections. One big truck accident when a blazer ran into me. One accident on a motorcycle when a VW decided to run into my side as I was running down the road, didn't see me? And zero accidents ever in a car, lots of tickets over the years though, but none since 1993. Most of my tickets were of the driving a performance car in the wrong place in front of the wrong cop type and some legitimate speeding tickets.
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