“I think this vehicle should be added to the site as a “Report A Motorist”.

GerDay Lyndal  …..  this may very well become a Coast To Coast 100 first!    Let me recount a truthful tale and share with your readers a thing or two. 
                       
I read in this web site, watched in the meejah (you know those pillars of righteousness who have done a bang up job of pillorying the road transport industry, time and again for many years now) and been berated in person with regard to the “cowboys out there in their juggernauts” who, with no regard to the sensitivities of “poor, innocent motorists” create a real life “Fear Factor” on our roads on a daily basis.
 
Fine.

Let me give you one in return, only this one has INDEPENDENT WITNESSES and is FACT written by someone with nearing 30 years experience on our roads with an AVERAGE distance covered in each and every one those years of probably between 200,000 and 220,000Kms.  Me!  You got it right.  Average of about 200,000Kms a year.  For ease of mathematical choice (and since truckies like me are supposed to be dumb) let us say that is 30  X  200,000.  Get out calculator (because I haven’t that many fingers and toes) and it would appear that I have somewhere in the order of 6,000,000Kms experience in heavy vehicles, professionally.

Dayum!  Just a learner!!!!
 
 Now  …..  they say that it is about 384,400Kms from the Earth to the Moon (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Moon).  Thus, it would appear that I have driven the equivalent of from the Earth to the Moon 15.60 times - all of which is virtually WITHOUT incident.  One would have to assume that I am neither prone to placing myself, my truck or the public in danger, nor going off “half cocked”.
 
Introduce a nice clean, WHITE Toyota “people mover” (Tarago, perhaps ????? although I am not good at what modern cars are called, aside from reading the emblem etc), registration number  FJM-223. 

The driver was so dedicated to the task of overtaking my Quad Dog that it didn’t matter that the dotted (broken) centre line HAD ALREADY RUN OUT and had become UNBROKEN DOUBLE LINES.  She just kept trying to carry on regardless.  Unfortunately for EVERYONE concerned, she was only half way up my trailer (at about the 4 metres mark from the back - my guess-timate) and my truck is a mere 19 metres long.  In other words, she had still about 15 metres to go before she would be clear of the front of my truck and be able to “get back in line”.
 
But worse is yet to come! Where the centre line became UNBROKEN in the southbound lane (the direction we were heading) there was an overtaking lane or 3 laner for Northbounds.  In those Northbound lanes were one motorist beetling along being overtaken by 2 others - something they were perfectly entitled to do.  So now we were 4 wide but only 3 lanes with the place where at least 3 would occupy the EXACT same space at the exact same time rapidly approaching (like within a hundred metres or so) and all doing about 100Kmh. 

Beauty!
 
So what do you reckon our rocket scientist in the Tarago did?  You guessed it!  She TRIED to continue overtaking even though a head on collision was guaranteed.  Not wanting to be involved in a catastrophic meeting I went for the brakes - hard but not so hard as to lock up.  Now this genius decides she just isn’t going to make it and SHE hits the brakes so that as I am slowing down, she, too, is slowing down!
 
At that point, I had no option then but to “head bush” and run along the edge of the table drain, doing probably in the order of 90 Kmh, still.  When I say head bush, I mean I actually left the carriageway completely. Now, with a truck and dog combination, running along the edge of a table drain isn’t too salubrious.  Next option was to roll myself over to protect all the innocents, probably killing myself in the process.
 
Fortunately, the cars heading North were on the ball and they, too headed off the road.  Old mate in the mini double (19 metre B-Double) behind me was ALSO under emergency braking and doubtless would have collected the lot of us would there have been a coming together, even though he was originally adequately separated from me until our Tarago Terrorist decided to overtake HIM, in the first place, then carry on trying to bag me up.
 
You see, I neglected to tell you that this maniac (in my opinion) had tried to overtake 2 WELL SPACED trucks with oncoming traffic in a vehicle with the acceleration characteristics on a camel on mandrax.
 
Much ringing of Police stations ensued but naturally they were too busy checking logbooks and licences of trucks doing the right thing  or similar to catch someone dedicated to killing herself and all around her.
 
Oh!  How do I know it is a her you may ask?  Simple, really.  About 10 Kms further the road comes to a T intersection at traffic lights in Dubbo, where I lined up to turn right.  SHE lined up next to me to turn left and head towards Dunedoo.  In this people mover was the blonde driver, a female that I would estimate to be in her late thirties or early forties.  In the passenger seat was a male but I didn’t get much of a look at him.  In the back, both rows appeared to be fully occupied with early teenagers, thus totalling a minimum of 6 occupants, 4 of whom were kids.
 
Do you think they were contrite or concerned?  Nope!  They were pointing up at me and laughing.  I have to say that I fail to see the humour of the situation.  Let us extrapolate a little from this incident.  Without any sense of bragging, the truth of the matter is that I am a highly trained, highly experienced operator. Fortunately for all concerned, I am.  Further, it is equally fortunate that the cars coming the other way were switched on.
 
If we would have all had a coming together, the meeejah would have presented it as something like this:-
 
“Today at Dubbo, 6 people were killed in a 3 car 2 truck pile up.  The accident occurred when a car and a truck collided, then the following B-Double ploughed into the wreckage.  Both truck drivers escaped without injury”.  NO mention would have been made of the absolute dead set lunacy of the Tarago Terrorist.
 
If I would have simply rolled over in order to save their lives it would have been reported thus:-
 
“Today a truck driver was killed when his B-Double rolled over in a single vehicle accident new Dubbo”.  The fact I am driving a quad dog doesn’t sound as dramatic as a B-Double, so B-Double it would be.  The fact that I would have given my life to save others completely ignored and our Tarago Terrorist would not have even had a mention.
 
Given the circumstances, and given that I have OFFICIALLY reported this incident to the Police (I have an event number), given that I have at least one COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT witness, I think this vehicle should be added to the site as a “Report A Motorist”.
 
I do NOT abrogate the responsibility those who tailgate, but in the overall scheme of things, they frighten people.  This woman was dead set hell bent on killing herself, all occupants in her car, probably the on-coming motorists and me as well.  Were it NOT for the professionalism of myself and the B-Double behind me, as well as the quick thinking of the on-coming motorists, she would have achieved her aim.  Thank God OUR aim was better!
 
It would be hard to argue a case against her inclusion in the “shame file” area of this site, given she didn’t just frighten people, she came within a whisker of killing up to a dozen people in one hit.  Good one, Tarago Terrorist.
 
Kindest Regards Indy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 am and is filed under Truckie Letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.