A little request for courtesy on the highways please

[silver]

I have driven commercially for a living and when I see a vehicle on the shoulder I will pull over to the left lane, traffic permitting.

And I watch the rest of the traffic and I would say about 4 out of 5 will pull over as well. This leaves me to speculate about the ones that won't. Is it their upbringing, their training, or what?

[Ken07AOVette]

Thanks Silver, I have no doubt at all that you hit the left lane. I don't know if it was the weather, the time or what, but far too many people were too damn close last night.

People likely do not realize that a drunk driver will actually aim for lights in their way, which may happen when people are too tired to be driving. Fix on a spot and lose concentration. There are far too many deaths from driver fixation and distraction.

I took the tire off and inspected the rim, looks like the rim is actually fine. The tire blew where there was a plug installed by the previous owner.

[CranePete]

As a professional driver for over 30 years, I can say that I always make an effort to give a wide berth to any vehicle pulled off on the shoulder. As a member of the travelling public, I carry ( and use ) a magnetic based flashing amber beacon, because it's just a bit more visible and "attention getting" than 4-ways alone. My 2 cents...
CranePete

[Ken07AOVette]

Originally Posted by CranePete

As a professional driver for over 30 years, I can say that I always make an effort to give a wide berth to any vehicle pulled off on the shoulder. As a member of the travelling public, I carry ( and use ) a magnetic based flashing amber beacon, because it's just a bit more visible and "attention getting" than 4-ways alone. My 2 cents...
CranePete

Thank you!

I have a set of ignorantly bright LED flashing lights that I am going to start carrying I guess. They are red/blue. Green and purple are legal for civilian vehicles and first responders, I will try some colored lenses and see if I can get the blue changed to purple or green.

I have stopped many times, honestly never was as worried as that night. I am going to put one of the high-visibility firefighter jackets in every time I leave now I guess. With the reflective stripes it should help.

[TylerThomson]

Just about creamed today and thought of this thread. I live in the country just off the highway at the apex of a corner. So I turn on my signal light early to warn the people behind me I need to turn left off the highway. Oncoming traffic forces me to come to a stop on the highway before I can turn. I look in my rearview and see a guy flying up behind me obviously not paying attention because he sees me and tries to go around me. He ends up getting pulled into the ditch hard. I make my turn and left them there.

I can't wait for winter info this corner again. Last year our stop sign got taken out so many times the md quit fixing it. I don't even go offer to pull people out anymore if they hit the ditch by my place.

[DWS]

There is a new association in Alberta for Tow truck and hiway service providers. Between this association and the RCMP the laws are going to be enforced more in the future.
Any one that does not slow down and move over from a vehicle with flashing amber lights or vehicles that are parked on the side of any road will be ticketed.

Please people, if you see lights, move over from a vehicle on the side of the road.

[Mavrick]

I use to skydive, never knew what fear was until I worked for a while as a tow truck driver. Everyone is in such a hurry, I can't do the speed limit on any highway, or back road without someone right on my ***** trying to beat the land speed record. Where are we all going that we need to get there that fast? If we are trying to slow the clock down, it will one day just stop ticking for you altogether.

[Fisherpeak]

Originally Posted by Ken07AOVette

People likely do not realize that a drunk driver will actually aim for lights in their way, which may happen when people are too tired to be driving. Fix on a spot and lose concentration. There are far too many deaths from driver fixation and distraction. .

My son damn near got killed helping jump start a car , pulled 30 feet off the road in a turn out and some drunk rear ended his truck when he was between the 2 vehicles hooking up cables. The guy thought it was the main road. At night with emergency flashers on too. Steve got lucky, the 2 vehicles were not parked square on so the collision pooped him off to one side. Broke ribs.,busted up face but not dead.

[silver]

I have been thinking about this one for a while.

The other day, the engine on my truck wasn't warmed up when I got to the highway, so I headed down the shoulder of the highway to give it time to warm up. I don't like to lug it or rev it up, I run it in the 1200 to 1500 range until the temp gauge moves close to normal. On that day, most people moved over to the left lane except one. He passes me in the right lane. It wasn't long before I was up to speed and I followed him for a while, about a half a mile back. In the next half an hour I watched him go by two vehicles on the shoulder, passing them in the right lane.

I also saw a guy in the left lane, nobody around him for a half mile, cruising along. I thought the left lane was just for passing. Maybe there are new rules that came out and I never heard about them.

I don't have the training or experience to analyze such people, that they could be oblivious to what is going on around them. I am just going to try and stay out of their way.

[javlin101]

So driving from Didsbury to Olds on the back roads this morning with slippery spots and blowing snow. The snow blowing around made visibility in some spots poor. I wish people would learn to turn their lights on as it is much easier to see them.

[Arty]

Having frequently driven on the A8 and A7, and once in a while through the Essen maze, it seemed to me that merging left when approaching & passing an on-ramp was simply self-preservation. Same while passing any obstruction on the shoulder.

I'd usually drive 220-240 kmh in good conditions. Real bad mojo if you snagged anything in the right lane. Can't imagine why you'd insist on being there, instead of merging left into an empty lane, if something weird was coming up. Or why you'd want to pass on the right hand side. I can assure you a rear-end collision at 200+ kph gets a lot more radical than at 80.

But in addition to not reading the situation ahead, way too many people don't realize how valuable extra space is. It only takes a couple inches too far to snag something with your vehicle. If you can give an extra foot or so, or wait while another vehicle passes a tight spot, that can make all the difference in the world. I find anyone who's worked on large industrial sites during construction or operations, or who operates heavy equipment, or most transport drivers, have developed a good sense for that.

The housewives and other old ladies, third-world immigrants and many kids driving fart-cans, I've found just try to shove through anything to show 'they have just as much right to be there'. Those are the ones which really give me the creeps.

Finally, in many jurisdictions it is mandatory to carry warning triangles, cones, and/or flares, and to use them if you're disabled on the side of any public road. This is SO IMPORTANT. It should be subject to spot checks any time anyone is pulled over the any reason, and at all 'stop-checks'.

And it means walking way down the road to start a slow 'V' from the shoulder to the outside edge of your vehicle, where the last two indicators are flares. That's your last chance to get a driver's attention in time who's tired or sick, worried about paying the mortgage and having domestic arguments on the cellphone.

[bat119]

First responders thought it looked "almost like Armageddon."


Fully loaded tanker trucks that exploded in Highway 400 pileup were 'bombs on wheels,' police say
A fatal, 14-vehicle pileup that killed at least three*people and left Highway 400 about an hour north of Toronto*littered with "tangled, twisted metal" may have been caused by an inattentive transport truck driver, police said Wednesday.*
The chain reaction of collisions started around 11:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, when a transport truck slammed into the back of another large truck that was stopped at the end of a long line of traffic in the northbound lanes. Two fully loaded tanker trucks, three other commercial vehicles and multiple cars were involved in the crash that ensued.

There's really no excuse for that truck to continue down the highway at the speed that they did,"

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...town-1.4381540

[Ken07AOVette]

All the 'special' people were all over the road to Calgary and back today, wow there were a lot of vehicles in the ditch. It was almost comical watching people skate all over the place.
I would be called out for racial profiling if I said who the majority of the idiots were today.
As Iron Mike Tyson says;

Thlow down, ith thlippery out there!

[TylerThomson]

Traffic has been doing about 50kmh around the corner by my place on the highway. Usually takes a coupe weeks for people to get their confidence up. I should start a pool with the wife and my neighbors on what day someone first wipes out our stop sign.