-
Whew!
A little blue car with two adults inside nearly bought the farm with the help of my bus and a concrete wall today and the dash cam caught it all.
I captured some screenshots.
We were in construction going south into OKC on I-35. There is traffic merging in and the lanes are narrowing. I am in the right lane going down a slight decline under the speed limit with the Jake engaged and slowing down. I have my double stack pushing me so there is no stopping on a dime. At the critical moment, I have three vehicles on my left side and many more behind.
Watch the blue car circled in red.
Two seconds later. Notice how much room is between me and the traffic that is merging from the right. They have plenty of time to merge, but I am still slowing some anyway.
Two seconds later and he passes the barrels and is free to speed up and merge. He does not.
Another two seconds and he is still not moving over or speeding up. Notice the cars in front of him are pulling away.
Three seconds later. The car in front of him is gone.
Now the brakes in the next 1/2 second.
He kept moving to the very point of the triangle. I could not see how he did not hit me. I was quite afraid he would whip in behind the bus as it went by and get run over by the trailer.
This is where the car would have been reduced to one-foot width.
I was very surprised when he/she passed me a few minutes later that I did not get cussed, braked checked or otherwise accosted. MAYBE they realized how close they came to getting killed.
Be careful out there, Ladies and Gentlemen. It can get dangerous in a hurry, even when your paying attention.
Davy
-
20 Replies
-
Davy,
I would bet all of Tom’s dues money that every one of us has had exactly the same thing happen. There is an endless supply of morons who have no clue about how to merge.
The ironic part of situations like that is when that car does get on the highway it will pass you and give you the finger.
The worst one that happened to me was several years back when a car on the ramp was hesitant so the car in front of me decided to be a good citizen and slowed down, apparently to let the guy merge. When the car on the ramp slowed more the car in front of me slowed even faster and came to almost a stop. Thank goodness I wasn’t tailgating or going fast because those two cars had no clue what each other was doing and neither had a clue about what could have happened behind them. People behind me were changing lanes and hitting the shoulder because they could not see what was unfolding in front of me. It was a wonder there wasn’t a crash.
I no longer have sympathy for people that do not know how to merge and if they don’t know enough about how to use the gas or brake to adjust their speed I don’t know enough to move over for them. I hope Andy’s driver less cars do a better job of merging
-
Davy: co pilot was helping you out! like Jon said ;drive as if you are about to get run over. Bob
-
We’ve had similar situations.
The first time was on our first trip to Florida when on a cloverleaf a stereotypical Florda couple was in an older Mercury Marquis trying to merge on a short merge ramp onto the Interstate. I had cars in the left lane. When I realized the car wasn’t going to check up and try to fall in behind me and was running out of merger ramp next to the front bay … I laid on the air horn. The last glimpse I had of the Mercury was of it running down the shoulder and headed for the shallow ditch.
I’ve made a conscious decision to liberally use the air horn when a merging vehicle appears to be unaware of what’s going on. I’ll move to the left when its open. But when its not I don’t have much option other than to keep going and use the horn. I’ve decided that slowing down when the vehicle is next to me is a mistake; they get the horn. If a slow moving vehicle gets in front of me and I can’t move to the left I have to slow down (with a long air horn).
-
I no longer have sympathy for people that do not know how to merge and if they don’t know enough about how to use the gas or brake to adjust their speed I don’t know enough to move over for them. I hope Andy’s driver less cars do a better job of merging
Andy’s driver-less cars ride in the center or left lane to avoid merging traffic.
-
Dash cams are the best. It should be the law every vehicle has one. Just think of the lawsuits it would save and therefore the insurance rates.
-
Andy’s driver-less cars ride in the center or left lane to avoid merging traffic.
So how do they get on the road? They would have to merge at some time……..and also to get back off.
Kind of hard to explain that away I would think…..
-
Andy, I understand what you are saying, but my point is that unless I am passing I am in the right lane, and every time I come to an on ramp with merging traffic I do not always have the opportunity to move over a lane and at this point I am sick and tired of accommodating drivers that do not know how to safely merge.
My point is stupid drivers need to understand it is their duty to accelerate to pull into the RIGHT OF WAY or slow as needed to fall in behind traffic on the RIGHT OF WAY.
On ramps are the one place I really am glad to see fast driving aggressive drivers because they just seem to know how to get the job done and they do not hesitate to mash the gas, and get out in front of me at or above my speed. The dumb asses who are afraid to mash the gas or who pull out immediately in front of me at slow rates of speed are a serious safety risk.
-
Happens all the time, morons entering the Interstate thinking they have the right of way, they don’t. The bulk of the time the Interstate is 2 lanes and as a courtesy I’ll move over if able, but most of the time there’s traffic passing and moving over is not an open. Seems like almost every trip now has some idiot trying to merge and rides on the shoulder because I can’t move over.
-
Oh, Yeah, I forgot to mention that I was punching the horn rapid fire too. When they passed me a few minutes later the passenger had both feet on the dash. My wife said he was probably trying not to sit on his wet pants.
Davy
-
Andy, I understand what you are saying, but my point is that unless I am passing I am in the right lane, and every time I come to an on ramp with merging traffic I do not always have the opportunity to move over a lane and at this point I am sick and tired of accommodating drivers that do not know how to safely merge.
And Jon, I fully understand your concept of driving at 62mph in the right lane and in some ways, that’s truly a safe approach. While you have many more hours of seat time than I have at this point, I’ve found it safer to do the same thing that most trucks do and that’s to stay away from the lane that’s encroached by those merging onto the highway.
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440 -
You need more time behind the wheel Andy.
Just an observation……..if you are in other than the RH lane you are passing or breaking the law. Assuming you are not a lawbreaker let me point out you should do a quick review of the laws of physics as they apply to mass and speed. At 70 compared to 60 your stopping distance almost doubles. Here’s some free advice…relax, slow down, and understand since you are already in the driver’s seat of a recreational vehicle you are already on vacation and all the extra speed will do is give you ulcers. You are unique in knowing how to get passing vehicles to understand you will drive right up their ass if they don’t wait until they are 450 feet ahead instead of the typical distance when they pull in the lane. At 60 your stopping distance is about 285 feet and I am way past worrying about comments about my driving speed. After 4500 miles in a Corvette on interstates it became crystal clear almost every truck in front of me blocking the passing lane was driving between 65 and 70 and keep in mind these are the fast trucks because they were passing.
You are also lucky to always have three lanes of traffic. For you to spend most of the time in the second lane from the right on a two lane interstate you are driving faster than I thought or you have a line of traffic behind you.
This thread is about morons who cannot merge, and as much as I would love to park my bus one lane over from the right lane it is not going to happen, no matter how fast I think I should go in the fast lane. All we can do is exactly as Davy did. Remain alert, expect the worst, and drive as if they are out to get us, which in fact is true.
-
The trucks that drive in the middle lane of 3 are lazy and create much ill will toward their company. As Jon said, any lane but the right one is for passing, not driving. Drivers have a responsibility to be good citizens on the highways. Unfortunately, I spend more time driving on the interstate in a car than I do in my Bus and the truckers are just in the way. As for merging, people are just stupid, they can’t merge with any type vehicle next to them; it is just far more dangerous if it is 50K+ pounds right next to them.
-
remember
when you get in court their lawyer will ask
could you have done anything to prevent this accident???
slow down? Speed up? Change lanes?
if the answer is yes to any question
you ha a big problem
-
I agree with George . To me a empty high way is bliss . Traffic sucks and like George said you must deal with the merge using all options to avoid a accident.
sometimes you get a good driver and he speeds up or slows down
sometimes you can move out of the way
sometimes you hit the brakes to let the moron in cause he is about to be crushed
I remember being the moron when i was young . I never wanted to be stuck behind a truck or a old man driving a RV . Now as the old man I ‘m the one who is in no hurry to get somewhere , so i take my time and arrive alive and happy .
-
George,
No need to answer questions. Let the dash cam videos do all the talking.
When we are almost on top of where the ramp merges with the right of way and someone merging decides to jump right into our lane doing half the speed unexpectedly, and then fails to stamp on the gas pedal because it might hurt their fuel mileage the excitement begins. Those folks have no idea how hard it is to stop a bus or to change lanes when our length with toad is 65 or more feet and they obviously do not understand the concept of “yield”.
Log in to reply.