"Jerry" wrote in message
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"TJ" wrote in message
news:P1Z2e.864278$8l.567848@pd7tw1no...
It's amazing how just one comment by a single person got this group into
an uproar. I really think that the public in general has a romance with
the life of the trucker brought on by the movie and media hype. Truckers
are just ordinary people who do an thankless job of moving just about
everything there is in North America to and from wholesalers to
retailers. Over the years the average trucker's education level has gone
from grade school drop outs to men and women holding degrees of various
ranges of education. Over the years I've come to know a rather large
group of people from a very large slice of various levels of education,
similar to that of most truckers. I hold two degrees and a commercial
Radio Telephone license, but for some reason I ended up returning to
"trucking" all the time. And all the trucks I've driven, over 1 million
miles, I've always had my amateur radio(s) and a CB. Each had it's own
nicessity and each one had it's own language. On one radio I as a
respected amateur radio operator who drove truck, on the other I was just
another trucker looking for a traffic report.
Oh, for those who are of the illusion that truckers are the cause of all
the terrible accident on the highways, well the only person your fooling
is yourself. To get the facts do a little research and you will find that
four wheeled vehicles cause more accidents than any other vehicle. Trucks
seem to fall into the same catigory as motorcycles do in the public's
perseption of the cause of accidents. After you have done your research
you will find that both trucks and motorcycles end of up being a very low
percentage of the cause of accidents. The only thing the public sees is
that when a truck gets into a bad accident it is very bad and devestating
distruction. But statistics show there are fewer truck accidents than
four wheeled vehicles and there are also far fewer accidents that are
caused by trucks entirely.
But, this is just this over educated truckers opinion.

73 de ve7agw, Al

One DOES wonder if the gent that cut me off the other day is an example of
the good trucker or otherwise. On that day I was driving the speed limit
(60) when a truck began to tailgate me. When traffic cleared, he snatched
the truck to the right lane, passed, blew his airhorn at me, and cut right
back in front of me. Now just what the hell am I supposed to do? Get a
ticket to please him? Not a chance! BOTH groups, trucks and cars, are
responsible for plenty of wrecks simply because they aren't paying
attention, going too fast, or too fast for conditions.

J



Your not alone on this one, I've been pulling a set of turnpikes (two 53
foot trialers) and had this pulled on me as well. Like
"cl" said there are rotten apples in every trade.
Over the years of driving in every state and province in North America (I've
seen bad drivers in every one too) I've even had an ambulance (no
lights/siren) cut in front of me while I was driving the speed limit of 55
for trucks and given the finger to boot. Even got told by a state trooper in
NY that I was in his way and pull off the road where there was not shoulder.
It seems that intellegence wasn't a requirement when they gave this
individual a badge,pistol and drivers licence. On the hand I've seen some
very stupid tricks done by trucking companies and drivers. One company in
paticular had a habit of sending new green drivers out west into the
mountains and in most cases it was a really bad decission for both driver
and company. When you have to talk a pretrified driver down a mountain road
so he won't kill himself and a lot of other people I really think something
is wrong here. For the last few years I drove before retiring I drove the
I-5 corridor, Vancouver Canada to LA and back once a week. And so many times
I would see inexperienced drivers trying to come down Mount Ashland and the
Grapevine in Ca. and their brakes would be smoking like a forest fire. By
the time they reached the bottom they wouldn't have any brakes left on the
truck or trailer. Driving a car on snow and ice is scarey, you should see
what it's like driving an 80,000 lb. truck and hopfully the truck in front
and behind you has an experienced driver in it. Now you know why most of us
old truckers go prematurely gray and retire long before we are 65.
I too drive two wheels and I hate it when I see a fool riding more bike than
they can handle and it's the same with four or eighteen wheels.

73....ve7agw, Al