re: 18 wheeler plows over guy on motorcycle in Slidell

ever notice how the state police like to get folks off the road?

for some odd reason, they are sitting ducks.

hell this wasn't even on a hwy!

dude just happened to pull up when the truck went wonky [ driver must have passed out ]

a friend of mine, pulled over on the tri-stae to read a map, got plowed into from the rear....of all the places to get a blowout

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Trucker Timothy Duimstra, 56, of Hudsonville, Michigan, who was hauling a load of flour, remained in the St. Tammany Parish Jail. After the wreck Friday, Duimstra was slurring his speech, unsteady, and appeared to be under the influence of both drugs and alcohol, Seuzeneau said in a news release Tuesday.

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Typical trucker.

Had an uncle get into a wreck with a truck, while he was on a bike during a rainy day going through thibodaux.

Was in a coma for days, lived and is ok today. But it was like, one of those situations too. Just not recorded.

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Hell, in MS they had troopers riding with truckers to catch "distracted drivers" and people who didn't give the truck enough room.

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Where in MS is that done? I need to know for research purposes.

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Darth - it wasn't that long ago (10 to 15 years) when I considered truckers the cream of the driving crop - sharing the road with them on many long drives gave me confidence - they were generally courteous, professional, etc. Lately, I suspect about 1/3 of them (or more) are impaired/distracted - either driving with too little sleep, using phone/tablet or watching movies, "crashing" (pardon the pun) from energy drink/caffeine overuse, or otherwise impaired with drugs and alcohol - I mean, driving is a serious enough business in a sedan - the level of difficulty is way higher in a loaded 18-wheeler. The margin of error is smaller and the consequences can be catastrophic - a large truck can take out several other vehicles quite easily.

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In the past decade or so there's been a flood of new drivers hit the road. Basically they go to a two or three week school to learn to drive an 18 wheeler and then they hit the road. A lot of these guys leave these schools several thousands of dollars in debt (these schools are rather expensive) and in order to repay their debt, these new drivers bend the rules and drive far longer than they are allowed by law (the old two sets of books trick). And many of these guys do things like meth, speed, or just a whole bunch of 5 Hour Energy drinks to keep going. So what you've got is an inexperienced driver who's high and exhausted all at the same time. It's scary to think about.

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And yet you can get a ticket in some states for not giving them enough room when you pass. Hell, in MS they had troopers riding with truckers to catch "distracted drivers" and people who didn't give the truck enough room. The troopers then radio to their trooper buddy up the road with a description the vehicle and the "violation".

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Well to be honest, it's a VERY bad idea to get right in front of a big truck. The reason for this is that while if something happens you in your car can slam on your brakes and stop "on a dime" so to speak, it takes a big truck a much longer idstance to stop. To give you an idea, even at only 55 MPH it takes a big truck like 200 yards to come to a full stop. Generally it takes them 40% longer to stop than a car.

LINK

Everyone saying the cyclist is lucky to be alive. I'm wondering what type of injuries this guy has from being plowed by 60,000 lbs. He might have been better off dead.

Most of the new drivers are Russian or eastern bloc guys or even worse SE Asians or Indian/Pakistani and they revert back to the ways in their home countries which are not safety oriented.

They're working for much less and it's all about racking up the miles. Owner operator outfits are getting squeezed out big time.

Damn...I'm glad the guy survived! He looked like he tried to take that turn at 50 mph...wtf.