| Author | Message | ||
     Crackhead |
What is 13 feet tall, 8 feet wide, weighs 80,000 pounds and invisible? (borrowed the question from one one else) http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/lucky-corve tte-driver-survives-trailer-crash-experts-call-200 318166.html I think someone was not paying attention or trying for a new high score (speed). | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
That should buff out. Walk it off dude. | ||
| 01x1buell |
i drive trucks for a living and you would be surprised how many people dont see you, i do not know why they cant see a huge vehicle but they dont | ||
| Badlionsfan |
Me too 01 and I agree 100%. It's amazing. The when you give people a little high beam flash or toot of the horn to let them know you're there they get pissed. | ||
| Orman1649 |
I like the fact that they basically blame the truck driver. It's not the vette drivers fault at all. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
T'was ever thus. I've been at it for well over 25 years now & it's much better than when I started safety-wise. Joe Public's attitude hasn't changed though, "Trucks should be made smaller as they're too big & dangerous." - That just means more trucks to move the same freight. "Trucks should be taken off the road & the freight put on rails." - Again, more smaller trucks & longer delivery times. "Large Trucks should only run at night to make the roads safer in the daytime." - Yeah right. "Large Trucks should run only in the daytime in urban areas because of the noise." - For f***s sake make your f***ing mind up! "Large Trucks should be banned." - But you still want all your goods in the store don't you? "All Truck Drivers are homicidal psychopaths who are aiming to kill car drivers." -Guess again. For all you non truckers, please remember these few simple rules. 1. If you're behind me & you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you! 2. I'm hauling a lot of mass it won't stop on a sixpence. 3. Don't get between me & anything else & just sit there, either stay behind or go by, PLEASE! 4. When my indicator is on it's probably because I'm going to move in that direction, this is not the time to accelerate up that side to just get past. 5. When I'm turning the semi-trailer WILL cut the corner, please try not to get in it's way. 6. Finally, do the math. You in your average cage weigh around 1.5 - 2 tons at 60 mph that's 90 - 120 t-mph. The average rig is running around 40t so at 50mph he's got around 2000 t-mph to deal with, 100 of yours more or less isn't going to have that much effect. Plus the fact that even if you go straight in the front it's all going to happen underneath my feet & the first thing you're going to hit is an engine that weighs more than your car. Don't play Chicken with a rig, you'll lose. Sure I'll avoid you if I can but I've no intention of committing suicide due to your stupidity. As for the f***wit Vette driver, he's damn lucky & I hope he gets a good fat ticket for his driving & a good loading on his insurance premium. Perhaps it'll teach him to pay attention on the road & he'll pass it on to his friends & family. I hope he appreciates how lucky he is. | ||
| Badlionsfan |
Good post grump. Orman, they always want to blame the truck driver. We're guilty til proven innocent. | ||
| Aesquire |
.....until then, it's best to avoid tailgating, and hope if you too have an accident, there's time to duck. That should read, "hope if you are an idiot..." The pity is many tailgaters live long enough to breed, it really hurts the bell curve from an evolutionary view. All this crap about a safety device not working well when used outside it's intended design.... It's like complaining that a hand rail on a pedestrian bridge doesn't stop people from jumping. The under run structure on the back of a trailer isn't meant to stop cars that don't hit squarely. ( and a structure that will, will probably kill more people, cost a fortune in fuel for the fleet, and be blamed for every idiot who hits it... ) Not the first time that conflicting safety rules led to bad results. ( and extreme cases like the Corvette idiot don't even count ) When they started actually thinking about what happens to pedestrians when hit by a car, they found out that getting run over sucked more than getting golf wedge scooped. Then they standardized bumper heights arbitrarily too high ( different committee! ) and have thus caused countless fatalities that would NOT have happened without the busy body attitude. And they almost NEVER correct mistakes like that much less admit they made one. Grumpy... don't forget "Large trucks should be banned because I'm an ignorant self important fool who thinks banning stuff wil make me more important..." Uh, never mind, you covered that fine.... | ||
| Ratbuell |
Wait. You mean you truckers can't use the Force, to just *think* your rig to a stop, because some meatball in a Prius needs to occupy the exact same piece of roadway you're already on?? I've always been alert to trucks on the road, but even moreso since I started trailering - first, my personal race cars and project cars and nowadays RV's for work. People are morons behind the wheel, and they expect not only a big rig designed for this much weight, but also a 3/4 ton pickup towing another vehicle or a complete living space, to be able to stop on a dime as well. I truly wish people, as part of the driving test, were required to spend even five minutes driving one of everything they'll find on the road, even if only in a parking lot. Five minutes on a motorcycle (even as a passenger). Five minutes pulling a trailer. Five minutes driving a bus. Even on a closed, low-speed course...I think it would help to hammer home the point that "there are other people on the road, with their own things to focus on...so pay attention!". But since that makes sense...it'll never happen  | ||
| Loki |
Never drove a big truck. Yet, I have a healthy respect for them. Never sit in their blind spots, never tailgate them. Watch their turn signals and acknowledge their intentions. I will do the same for anyone towing a trailer or driving one of those big RV thingies. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
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| Etennuly |
I've been a truck repair guy for twenty + years and drove TT for a year or so, and I am a Corvette owner. I know that if I stuff the brakes on my car, one that the highest part of it's nose less than three feet off the surface, that it will dive down another inch or two. Since the forward edge is sloped down even further, as well as wax coated and slippery, logically, I have got to understand that if I poke it into the 19" gap between that trailer and the ground the only thing stopping my car will be the "A" pillars, windshield, windshield wipers, and the top dash pad. Other than that I would be using my face to stop the mass of the car from further forward movement. Unless of course the trailers axles were slid all of the way back. This guy did good. You can tell by where he ended his ride that he had calculated the exact moment the car would have to stop in order not to have to use his face as a brake. A little further fore thought might have him stopping about fifteen feet shorter of his car's own accord, but I am awarding style points for good depth calculation. Ya know he was serious about his calcluation.....he bet his life on it!  | ||
| Blake |
Interesting. Last year I designed/analyzed just such a RUPD (rear under-run protection device) aka "rear bumper" for a mobile military satcom vehicle. Had to comply with Euro/NATO/UN specs. The article is correct, the off-center impact is not well-protected. Took me about a week to decipher the specifications. If they'd just share the intent (prevent the average car from under-running at up to 20 MPH impact), our design would have been far superior, but yes, more costly. Probably would have had to add a couple braces, about $50 of cost. Gov't specs are too often way too overbearing, trying to eliminate the need for engineering expertise in favor of mandated cookbooks. It stifles innovation. |
