if memory serves, we have several professional drivers here that can attest to this... this unfortunate yet fortunate accident at the same time can be summed up one way. this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object and something is caught in the middle.

i am permitted up to 84k lbs, rarely reach it given the nature of my deliveries. however, when im pulling loaded doubles my permit weight goes up quite abit although my days of pulling doubles are basically over since im on a dedicated route now.

Fact: vast majority of 4 wheelers (car driving folks) are oblivious to our presence and treat us as an inanamate object to get around regardless of if were in town or on the hwy.

Fiction: handling of a 18 wheeler is similar to a full size truck pulling a modest 5th wheel.

Fact: our braking system is air operated, and there is only so much air. then there is heat... the more you try to stop the hotter the brakes get (while lessening you air pressure) thus drastically reducing your braking power as the brake pads get hot and "soften". this is why there are "runaway truck ramps" on most steep grades. drivers unfamiliar, or maybe pressed by hours or miles dont grab a gear low enough for their jake to properly slow their tractor. they simply get their brakes so hot that they become ineffective and from there physics kicks in. pure mass, the pull of gravity, low air pressure due to contant breaking or the heat created from constant breaking is the making of an unstoppable object. even if a truck isnt overspeed while attempting the grade, they soon will be (and quite quickly) if they are not in the proper gear. the vast majority of professional drivers move slow and with perpose while allowing 4wheelers to treat us the way they do... point a to point b without incident.

Fact: the vast majority of accidents involving a professional driver and a 4 wheeler were caused by the the 4 wheeler. we are more likely than not to be cited, because we are professionals. i have experienced this.

Fiction: if we do hit something (or somebody hits us) we will know it. wrong. wrong. wrong. at the most, its a bump if that. while at a dead stop pulling a half full 45', i was rear ended by a drunk driver doing 65mph. i barely felt it, my icc bar barely had a scratch on it and the drunk drivers car was a pile of smoldering metal and plastic that was barely recognizable as a car. he survived without major injure because of his intoxication.

Fact: when a combination with full air and cool breaks locks them up, the trailer will come around. its physics, the weight behind the tractor will not want to stop and 16 tires that are suddenly stopped will not (most of the time) hinder the trailer from acting like some sort of boom from hell sweeping either left or right until it sweeps completely around and is either flipped (taking the tractor with it) or hits something that cannot and will not be moved.

Fiction: tractor trailers stop just as good as they go when the road is even slightly wet... this does not include frozen. we do not. we cannot. if you can barely stop given road conditions, multiply that by 10 if were loaded and its only wet. when you throw winter into the mix, it gets very very complicated for us regardless of if we are chained up or not.

Fact: the vast majority of otr or dedicated local route drives want to get from point a to point b as fast as possible.

Fiction: anybody outside of the profession understanding that giving us a wide birth is a good idea.

My point is this:
If you do not give us a wide birth, if you do not respect that fact that we do not go, turn, stop anything remotely like a car under normal circumstances at best you're wrong and if you do not realize that if you cut us off and decide to stop... your done. that much mass meeting that much stupidity... its amazing that you dont hear about more fatalities.

I am not trying to obsolve the driver that rear ended gr, he was obviously in the wrong. he will pay for it not only financially, but emotionally.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing you could possibly do to escape the physics of it. there is no cage, no body mount bolt, no weld... there isnt anything you or anybody else can do to escape the results besides being a conscious, aware and considerate driver.

Every time i drive, i see people take their lives into their own hands in how they handle us given their own sheer ignorance. i am on a route that is considered local, i dont haul the weight most of the time of somebody otr, but i log more hours (legal dot hours) and close to the amount of miles. i do this on some of the most treacherous streaches of road in the lower 48.

That being said, i would sooner scuttle my truck and load(if i still even have remote control of it) before hitting a car. chances are, when that does happen again i wont be so lucky. like i said mass + velocity + human stupidity ='s somebody loosing their life... there is no mod that can change this. nothing physical that can be done. not the better car seat, not the better crumple zone, not the better bumper... not a dam thing you or anybody else can do... physics is fact. nothing except a mental change that produces awareness that will never happen amoungst the sheeple.

This is beyond being an unfortunate incident involving one of our own that will have lasting consequences across the board, all of it seemingly rests at the feet of one professional driver that either wasnt paying close enough attention or was in a hurry.

Happy motoring people.