Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/358493
Voices 12 | Overdrive | August 2014 In response to a New Jersey newspaper's publication of a reader's letter in which truckers – the "bullies of the highway," as the writer put it – were to blame for the lion's share of highway safety problems, trucker Rick Blatter offered the response excerpted below. For the full piece, search "Four-wheelers, too" at OverdriveOnline.com. In the 20 or so years that I have been driving big trucks, I have been tailgated, cut off and a witness to reckless driving by automobile drivers on our highways. It is especially dangerous during rush-hour traffic when four-wheelers race to wherever they are going. The bigger the city, and the more dense the traffic, the more dangerous, reckless and uncourteous car drivers get. My biggest pet peeve is four-wheelers that speed by me in the left lane, then slam on their brakes and cut in front of me in the middle or right lane … still braking. Do such drivers realize it takes me 10 times the distance to stop compared to their car? This maneuver is illegal and will get them a fine if it does not cause an accident. Another pet peeve is when cars zoom by in the left lane of a three- or-more-lane highway, then slam on their brakes and cut across three or more lanes to exit on the right at the last possible moment. This is an illegal and highly dangerous maneuver as well. [The letter writer] goes on to say truckers "play chicken, drive on the tail of your car to the point all you can see is the grille of the cab. They will box you in — front, back and sides — so that you can't escape them. They drive in the left-hand lane, and speed." These are all things I see cars do, too. Granted, there are some bad truck drivers, but there are many, many more bad car drivers. — Rick Blatter, Laval, Quebec Driver rebuts 'bullies' charge by four-wheeler In late June, as President Obama unveiled some details of a multi- pronged approach to the ongoing disarray and violence in Iraq, the strategy took a few of the options outlined in Overdrive's own polling on the issue. But the president stopped short of committing to air strikes, which the Iraqi government had requested. He didn't rule out that possibility, but ground troops, he said, were out of the question. Just more than half of poll respondents favored another ap- proach. "Keep our nose out of it," wrote Glenn Hicks, commenting on Overdrive's Facebook page. "We have caused enough trouble in the area by butting in. It's not, nor has it ever been, our problem." The group threatening stability in Iraq today, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, also has aims in neighboring Syria. In 2013, as some factions in the U.S. government urged involvement in the still-ongoing Syrian civil war, the percentage of readers urging no involvement there was even higher – almost 6 in 10. Hot Buttons WHAT OPTION SHOULD THE U.S. TAKE IN IRAQ? None 53% SOURCE: OverdriveOnline.com poll Air strikes 23% Ground troops to support government 7% Expand military support in targeting and intel 5% Other 7% I don't know 5% IRAQ IRAQ Truckers favor hands-off option for Iraq "My biggest pet peeve is four-wheelers that speed by me in the left lane, then … cut in front of me," writes trucker Rick Blatter.