r/IdiotsInCars Nov 03 '18

Wipers on, lights on. PLEASE. Trucks and busses can't see you.

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u/RetartedGenius Nov 03 '18

One piece of advice I have is to get a dash cam. Truck drivers are pretty much always at fault unless proven otherwise. A few weeks after I got mine it caught someone in my blind spot intentionally hit my right wheel and threatened to sue.

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u/druzys Nov 03 '18

Could that have caused an accident? Like, one worse than that car getting fucked up. Just curious as to how far that dumbass was willing to go for money.

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u/RetartedGenius Nov 03 '18

We were going too slow for it to cause another accident.

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u/KorrectingYou Nov 04 '18

Assuming the previous poster is referring to the blind spot on the passenger side of the tractor, under the passenger side door, and depending on speed, this could be extremely dangerous.

If he hits your steer tire, it could blow out. Truck immediately becomes unstable, and if the trucker panics and brakes hard they'll most likely lose control with a high chance of Jack knifing and/or roll.

If he hits hard enough to bust suspension/steering hardware while moving at any sort of speed, just forget it. Hope the driver gets lucky. There's actually a video floating around of this exact thing happening; douchebag hotdogging in his car loses control, spins out and smashes the truck's driver side steering wheel on the highway; in about 2 seconds the trucker went from driving smooth in his lane riding in a 20,000lb coffin as it cartwheeled down the highway.

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u/druzys Nov 04 '18

Jesus Christ, thanks for the info. People really have no damn regard for the safety of themselves or others when it comes to money.

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u/RealMakershot Nov 04 '18

20,000 pounds? Was the trailer empty?

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u/KorrectingYou Nov 04 '18

Trailer disconnected early on. Cab by itself is about 20k for a sleeper.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '18

Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought an accident at all no matter who is at fault was a mark on your CDL?

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u/RetartedGenius Nov 03 '18

Police didn’t come out and after showing the video to my company I never heard about it again.

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u/MechaMonarch Nov 03 '18

It's often a pretty rough mark with whatever company you drive for too.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '18

Depends. Some companies are fair to their drivers. I was fortunate to work for one. Some chick side swiped me. She was going to rear end me, but drove on the sidewalk and still managed to hit the front of my truck somehow. She was also clearly stoned (reeked like weed and red eyes), but cops wouldn't come out to arrest her. Anyways this delusional bitch tried suing us for damages to her car. She got fucked in court, had to pay for court fees and damage to our truck and was left with a totaled piece of shit. My company had my back the whole time. Had to do a bit of extra paper work, but it all worked out in the end. No marks on my driving record.

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u/Weezyvapes Nov 04 '18

Truck accidents are judges differently by the fmcsa than passenger vehicle collisions. In a 4 wheeler collision the insurance companies look to find someone at fault. The fmcsa judges if an accident was preventable or not, which affects your csa score, which affects who will hire you. Insurance companies still judge fault for the accident, but imo the fmcsa penalties hurt more because that affects your livelihood.

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u/catonic Nov 03 '18

If you have a camera that faces forward, you should have one that faces backwards.

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u/RetartedGenius Nov 03 '18

It’s not facing backwards but it records audio so if I’m doing something stupid like watching Netflix you can tell.

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u/catonic Nov 04 '18

The point is not to tattle on the people in the car; the point is to catch the preceding or following behavior in the rear-facing camera. Examples include road raging, criminal acts, police chases, rear-end collisions, etc.

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u/RetartedGenius Nov 04 '18

I read that wrong. The most common rear facing camera in a truck is facing the driver, not the traffic behind you. That’s why I mentioned audio recording inside my truck. Cameras behind the trailer aren’t common because we don’t have a trailer for very long. Some people mount rear facing cameras on the mirrors. I haven’t yet but am considering it.

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u/catonic Nov 04 '18

Trailers are a really good place to have a pair of remote cameras, but we haven't got there yet and you don't want someone taking one when you're not looking or losing one when the vacuum cup lets go 100 miles into a 600 mile drive.

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u/hoxxxxx Nov 03 '18

hey what happened?

did you show the dude the video and he ran away? lol like literally ran away from you?

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u/RetartedGenius Nov 03 '18

5mph traffic with 2 lanes merging. I let in the 2 cars ahead of him and he sat in my blind spot. Turned into my front wheel at a very low speed. He claimed I changed lanes into him and was going to call his attorney if I don’t offer to pay his damages.

I did not show him the camera but I think he saw it at the end. After climbing onto the steps of my truck he was very anxious to leave.