It's How Vampires Die!

What? Vampires?? What in the world are vampires doing here, ruthlessly invading this blog, which is supposed to be about big rigs?


Despite the serious topic of the following post, I couldn't help but post the photo of this
"vampire truck" that I found on the web... very clever observation by whoever took this photo!

I do enjoy vampire literature, it's a fantastic and imaginative world that I often visit through books. (And no, I have not joined the Twilight epidemic... I do prefer more mature vamps ;-))

Throughout these vampire books, the vampires vary quite a bit in the way they live & what powers they possess. Some can tolerate a few rays of sunlight, some die on exposure, some have beating hearts still, some eat regular food in addition to sucking blood.... I could go on and on. The one thing all of them do have in common is that they are very hard to kill. There are in fact only a couple of ways a vampire can actually die and that is something that most authors seem to agree on.

So... how does a vampire die?
Simple ... tailgating a big rig at 60 mph should do it. Not even a vampire can survive decapitation.

What prompted this detour of my mind you might ask.

Well, on my way in to work this morning, I spotted a Ford Focus that was literally glued to the bumper of an 18-wheeler. The traffic was moving at about 65mph, the semi may have been at 55. This Focus was following the semi truck so close, I just had to shake my head at how little the driver of this Focus must respect his life. Or perhaps it is a lack of respect for death? Surely the Grim Reaper is not someone you want to play with and this Grim Reaper is probably not someone who should be mocked so blatantly?

I don't get it. What exactly is a 4-wheeler trying to accomplish by tailgating a semi truck so close? Do they REALLY think that by tailgating so closely, the truck is going to get out of the way? Excuse me while I chuckle a little.

First of all, trailing that closely behind a big rig means the truck driver cannot see you. You know that sticker that says "If you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you"? Well.... that sticker is there to inform you that when you're trailing behind 53 foot semi, there's no way the truck driver can see you if you drive that close. (And the sticker is in fact slightly misleading as well ... it's in fact only when you can see the TRUCK DRIVER in his/her mirror that he can see you.... only catching a glimpse of their mirrors does not guarantee that you can be seen by them....)

The blind spot to the rear of a big rig is about 30 feet ... and I'm guessing that those 30 feet covers more than frontbumper-to-rearbumper of your car.

ALSO ... let's say the truck driver COULD see you when you drive that close ...
Do you REALLY think that your little, tiny Ford Focus can bully that 53', 80,000lbs vehicle out of the way?? Or perhaps you think your "sup'd up" F-350 can make that semi move out of the way...

Uhm. No. Maybe you can bully a Prius out of the way. Not an 18wheeler.

So... I think we've established that there's really no logical point in tailgating an 18-wheeler... not to mention it's rude (as is tailgating anything with less wheels too by the way) and last but not least ... this activity could be lethal!
What if said 18-wheeler has to come to a sudden stop? There's no time for a tailgater to react. You can't see ahead of the trailer... unless you have x-ray vision ... so you don't know what's going on up ahead. The only warning you get is the brake lights on the semi... which, if you're as close to the truck as this Focus was, will not going to give you any time at all to react... which means you'll be slamming face first into the truck, going at least 55mph, maybe more.

But wait.... did I say face first? The fact is, you won't actually be slamming face first into the rear of the truck. No... you'll be under the truck. Your Focus will promptly become topless.
And so will you.

That, my friends, is how you kill a vampire. Decapitation.
And if you're thinking right now "yeah but vampire's aren't real", then you completely missed the point. The point is, you don't want to lose your head & if you play with the big guys this way, chances are you literally will.

(What's that? You weren't tailgating, you were drafting? Um ... yeah ... first of all, Mythbusters proved that even if you are in fact drafting, if you get THAT close to the big rig... you are no longer saving any gas! Furhermore, those couple of dollars you could potentially save on gas by drafting won't mean much if you are dead... no matter where you think you're going in the afterlife, I doubt the currency there will be American dollars....)

I'm not going post any grotesque videos or photos here to illustrate my point.
Personally, I would think the word decapitation is a strong enough deterrent so I'll just put that in here a few more times:

decapitation, decapitation, decapitation!
Translation: It's what happens when you slam into a big rig @ 60mph!

Don't tailgate 18-wheelers!!! It could very well be your last mistake.

(Not to mention that the truck driver has to live with that for the rest of his/her life, even though it was not their fault... That hardly seems fair....)

Now ...... go play nice!

Sharing the road with Big Rigs - BLIND SPOTS!

I have posted this one before... but I think this will be one of very few posts that I'll keep reposting and reposting until I stop seeing people driving like idiots around big rigs ... which, let's face it, will probably be never so bottomline, I'll probably be reposting these safety posts until I die.

Take a moment please, and familiarize yourself with the danger of passing or driving too close to big rigs! There are blind spots everywhere, and YOU need to be aware of them even if you are not a truck driver. It could save your life!

75% of all car-big rig accidents are caused by the driver of the car, not the truck driver .

I commute a lot. I drive about 35 miles each way to and from work, 5 days a week, and boy do I see some stupid driving, especially when it comes to small cars vs. semis. (And mind you, ALL cars are small compared to big rigs….)

In this post, I want to write about blind spots.

Blind Spots.

All cars have them. There is nothing as scary as readying yourself to change lanes, you think that the lane next to you is wide open and then all of a sudden you spot a sucker that has been lurking in your blind spot for the past few minutes. It’s enough to give a person a heart attack.
On a regular car, the blind spots are few & they are small. We also have the luxury of being able to turn our heads and look over our shoulder before we merge, to make sure nobody is riding in our blind spot. A truck driver can’t do that. If he turns his head and looks over his shoulder, he’ll see the back of his cab!

A big rig has a lot of blind spots, and some of these blind spots do in fact span across several freeway lanes. Let’s go through them.

1. Front of the Truck: This blind spot ranges out about 20 feet ahead of the semi. The driver won’t see you there. Merging in this close to a big rig can be fatal. Make sure you leave about 4 car lengths between your car and the big rig.

2. Rear of the Truck: About 30 feet directly behind the trailer and you should keep a distance of 25 car lengths. The problem is that when you drive behind a big rig, you can’t see what is going on ahead of you in traffic. You can only trust that the brake lights on the rig in front of you are working properly and that the truck driver is able to hit his brakes in time should something cause a sudden stop. If you are driving too close to the rear end of a big rig and a sudden stop happens, it too could be fatal.I suppose that if you are driving behind a big rig, which sometimes happens, especially on busy freeways, you should drive at a speed that will allow you to stop in time should a sudden stop occur.

3. Left Side of the Truck: a 3-lane span, starting at the end of the truck cab and running down the entire length of the truck. Passing on the left side of a big rig is the correct thing to do, however don’t linger. Make your passing a quick one so that you will be visible again to the driver as fast as possible.

4. Right Side of the Truck: Some trucks have a sticker on the back that says:

<<>>

This sticker isn’t for comedy or posted as a joke. Passing a big rig on the right hand side could very well be the last thing you do in life. I don’t mean to be morbid, but that’s a fact. The blind spot on the right hand side of a big rig also fans out for about 3 lanes and runs the length of the truck, but this blind spot is a lot less forgiving than the one on the left.The truck driver may very well see you when you enter the blind spot, but if you linger there and he no longer sees you, he could forget that you are there. If by any chance he has to make a sudden swerve to avoid a collision or an object in the lane, there is no chance he remember that you are still next to him if he can’t see you.

I bring up the word “fatal” a lot because if you end up in an accident vs a big rig, the chances of you walking away could be minimal.

I read somewhere that 78% of small cars vs big rig accidents end in fatality.

78%!

And these small cars are the ones I constantly see darting in and out of traffic, passing on the right, passing on the left, cutting off big rigs left and right (and everyone else for that matter). Seriously. You may think you’re the best driver in the world but be cautious when passing big trucks. Unpredictable incidents in the roadway happen a lot, and you want to be visible to a truck driver at all times so that if he does have to make a sudden move, he knows you’re there!

So…blind spots. We all hate them. I’m sure truck drivers despise them. But they’re there. Just be aware of them. And don’t pass trucks on the right!

Sharing the Road with Big Rigs - Blind Spots

(The following post was accidentally deleted and has been reposted, so to some of you it may seem like you've read this before.... :-))

I want to dedicate a lot of this blog space to traffic safety when it comes to cars & big rigs.

75% of all car-big rig accidents are caused by the driver of the car, not the truck driver and that’s a stat I believe.

I commute a lot. I drive about 35 miles each way to and from work, 5 days a week, and boy do I see some stupid driving, especially when it comes to small cars vs. semis. (And mind you, ALL cars are small compared to big rigs….)

In this post, I want to write about blind spots.

Blind Spots.

All cars have them. There is nothing as scary as readying yourself to change lanes, you think that the lane next to you is wide open and then all of a sudden you spot a sucker that has been lurking in your blind spot for the past few minutes. It’s enough to give a person a heart attack.

On a regular car, the blind spots are few & they are small. We also have the luxury of being able to turn our heads and look over our shoulder before we merge, to make sure nobody is riding in our blind spot. A truck driver can’t do that. If he turns his head and looks over his shoulder, he’ll see the back of his cab!

A big rig has a lot of blind spots, and some of these blind spots do in fact span across several freeway lanes. Let’s go through them.

1. Front of the Truck: This blind spot ranges out about 20 feet ahead of the semi. The driver won’t see you there. Merging in this close to a big rig can be fatal. Make sure you leave about 4 car lengths between your car and the big rig.

2. Rear of the Truck: About 30 feet directly behind the trailer and you should keep a distance of 25 car lengths. The problem is that when you drive behind a big rig, you can’t see what is going on ahead of you in traffic. You can only trust that the brake lights on the rig in front of you are working properly and that the truck driver is able to hit his brakes in time should something cause a sudden stop. If you are driving too close to the rear end of a big rig and a sudden stop happens, it too could be fatal.I suppose that if you are driving behind a big rig, which sometimes happens, especially on busy freeways, you should drive at a speed that will allow you to stop in time should a sudden stop occur.

3. Left Side of the Truck: a 3-lane span, starting at the end of the truck cab and running down the entire length of the truck. Passing on the left side of a big rig is the correct thing to do, however don’t linger. Make your passing a quick one so that you will be visible again to the driver as fast as possible.

4. Right Side of the Truck: Some trucks have a sticker on the back that says:

<< LEFT - Pass ********* RIGHT – Suicide >>

This sticker isn’t for comedy or posted as a joke. Passing a big rig on the right had side could very well be the last thing you do in life. I don’t mean to be morbid, but that’s a fact. The blind spot on the right hand side of a big rig also fans out for about 3 lanes and runs the length of the truck, but this blind spot is a lot less forgiving than the one on the left.The truck driver may very well see you when you enter the blind spot, but if you linger there and he no longer sees you, he could forget that you are there. If by any chance he has to make a sudden swerve to avoid a collision or an object in the lane, there is no chance he remember that you are still next to him if he can’t see you.

I bring up the word “fatal” a lot because if you end up in an accident vs a big rig, the chances of you walking away could be minimal. I read somewhere that 78% of small cars vs big rig accidents end in fatality. 78%! And these small cars are the ones I constantly see darting in and out of traffic, passing on the right, passing on the left, cutting off big rigs left and right (and everyone else for that matter). Seriously. You may think you’re the best driver in the world but be cautious when passing big trucks. Unpredictable incidents in the roadway happen a lot, and you want to be visible to a truck driver at all times so that if he does have to make a sudden move, he knows you’re there!

So…blind spots. We all hate them. I’m sure truck drivers despise them. But they’re there. Just be aware of them. And don’t pass on the right!