BEEP BEEP BEEP - Trucks backing up

[Švejk]

or anything on four wheels for that matter, really. I understand that someone right behind a large truck might benefit from a subtle reminder that said truck is about to run him or her over. But such a reminder only has to be heard by those people that are in the direct vicinity of that truck, not people that are half a mile away. Still, it seems as though trucks are dedicated not only to quietly alerting people to the fact they're about to be squashed like a bug, but also to waking the dead in a 5 block radius. And not only trucks, it seems as though anything the size of a shopping cart is outfitted with those hellish alarms these days. Fuck all those fucking fuckers!

To make matters worse, it seems as though the administration of the university that I'm at goes out of its way to find the loudest way possible to get things done in an effort to break as many concentrations as they can. Rather than give some fool a ladder to do his work, they'll give him some ultra expensive lifting device that raises screeching hell every time he makes it move an inch up or down. Damn them! Damn them all to hell! I WANT FUCKING QUIET!

Thank you. That will be all.

[Bambro]

Wow. Your life sucks.

[runner pat]

Construction sites and loading docks can be very noisy.

[Yeticus Rex]

...And clueless people with cellphones and ipods....

[Malthus]

I once worked on a coroner's inquest into the death of a man run over by a cement truck. He was a work site foreman distracted (fatally) by someone driving inappropriately onto the site - he turned around to wave this poor woman off, and the truck crushed him. The driver couldn't see him.

His death was mercifully quick but gruesome in the extreme. The truck basically squeezed his body like a tube of toothpaste in the middle, causing his guts to spurt out of both ends.

The woman driving the car was traumatized by the sight, as was the poor guy driving the truck. Seeing the scene pics, I'm not suprised.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that the slight annoyance caused by loud beeping is probably worth it, if it avoids stuff like that even in a few cases.

[SeaCanary]

You want sucky? I'll give you sucky!!

The local Army/Navy store had an African Grey parrot that would imitate everything -- with 100% fidelity -- from the door opening and closing to the phone ringing. But it's absolute favorite was a truck's back-up alarm. FAVORITE!!

I asked the guy behind the counter how-the-hell many times had the bird heard it? His response, with a murderous glance at the parrot: "Once."

[Anaamika]

I hate them, too. They do not need to be so fucking loud. I can sleep through almost anything except repetitive noises: so snoring, and the damn truck beeping. And at 7 am on a Saturday morning in a residential neighborhood, it doesn't need to be that goddamn loud!

[2gigch1]

Like most minor annoyances in this world, it probably started with a lawsuit. Someone got squished, a lawsuit happened, and backup beepers were born.

Out trucks have a backup beeper kill switch we can hit if we think it is not needed.

I am sure the switches will be removed if we back up into someone someday.

Many times freestanding ladders are very dangerous to use. Mobile platforms are much safer.

Sorry about the world being noisy. Try earplugs.

[Rhythmdvl]

"Loud back-up alarms save lives." Though it doesn't have the same pithiness, it does have a point. Too bad it wouldn't make for an elegant bumper sticker.


Any reason this the OP wasn't posted to the mini-rant's thread? Is there no real conception that the alarm needs to be heard over whatever other construction/engine noise is going on in a job site--possibly through (somewhat paradoxical) hearing protection? The whole point of the alarm is because the driver can't always see where he's going. Giving him the option of turning it down so precious doesn't loose her concentration (?) really mistakes priorities.

I think the OP should be forced to read next to someone with too much perfume on (with a circumcised, de-clawed cat in their lap).

[msmith537]

Well...that's what the OP gets for sleeping in a construction site.

[Anaamika]

"Loud back-up alarms save lives." Though it doesn't have the same pithiness, it does have a point. Too bad it wouldn't make for an elegant bumper sticker.


Any reason this the OP wasn't posted to the mini-rant's thread? Is there no real conception that the alarm needs to be heard over whatever other construction/engine noise is going on in a job site--possibly through (somewhat paradoxical) hearing protection? The whole point of the alarm is because the driver can't always see where he's going. Giving him the option of turning it down so precious doesn't loose her concentration (?) really mistakes priorities.

I think the OP should be forced to read next to someone with too much perfume on (with a circumcised, de-clawed cat in their lap).

2 blocks away, too?

[BottledBlondJeanie]

It is not a rare instance for someone to be killed or maimed by trucks backing up. It happens with trucks with working back-up alarms, those without, or those with malfunctioning alarms. These happen with a regularity you would be surprised by.

Google degloving injury on images. Really.

I agree that they are loud. Blame the federal government (FMCSA and OSHA) as well as your state laws. Oh, that and enough deaths that it is disconcerting.

[BottledBlondJeanie]

Umm, and it looks like the OP is not in the US violating something that I yelled at another poster for failing to take into account. Sorry.

Still, I have seen cases outside the US where such an alarm is required, and people have been killed or maimed despite laws that require the alarms to be there. Just not everywhere. OP, your locality's rules may vary.

Still, a good idea, annoying or not.

[Senegoid]

Somewhere, some wise-ass decided that even BEEP BEEP BEEP wasn't obnoxious enough. There are now trucks with an electronic tinny-sounding mechanical sounding voice that bellows:

"Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! Warning This Vehicle is Backing Up! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "

ad nauseum.

In another noise-pollution rant I saw a few weeks ago on this board, I posted a link to the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse (http://www.nonoise.org/), which I think is well worth repeating here -- (although I don't know how active that group is, currently).

ETA: Another big point made by the NPC people is that those abominable car alarms don't even do much to prevent theft, actually, since everybody ignores them anyway, and even the insurance companies say so. So much for the alarms that cried wolf a little too much. And in fact, the recent issue of Via, the American Auto Club magazine, even has an item to that effect.

In fact, it seems to me that I'm hearing car alarms a little less often now than I did a few years ago. Are they (hopefully) fading in popularity?

[Rhythmdvl]

2 blocks away, too?

While I'm sure the folks at Bose could devise an Acoustimass speaker that is louder than all construction noise within ten meters of the truck but softer than the overall noise outside this region (maybe they could team up with Dyson?), there probably isn't a market for it. Maybe an intelligent speaker that changes volume with ambient noise? Hmmmm..... we may be on to something! :)

[Buck Godot]

I used to live in a high rise apartment that faced a municipal facility that housed garbage trucks a block or so away. Every morning at about 5:00AM they would warm up their trucks.

"GGGGRRRRRRUMBLerumbleumbleumbleumble BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

This would continue for half an hour for the same truck. In my sleep deprived mind I would imagine the trucks driving multiple circles around the facility backwards just to annoy me.

[The Other Waldo Pepper]

2 blocks away, too?

Imagine you're the person in charge of keeping your company from getting sued; do you recommend paying for the quieter beep, or the louder beep?

[ExTank]

There's a city Road Maint. Depot right by where I live. They also store road salt there for winter time use.

Last winter, I damned near wanted to go over and shoot someone for routinely leaving their truck in reverse from 11:00 PM to 6:00 AM every FUCKING NIGHT!

[Algher]

I endorse this rant. I have chosen to keep an apartment near my office in the city, for when it is too late to head home to the burbs. In exchange, I get the fucking trucks at 3:00 AM picking up the trash, with their backing alarms.

I would REALLY like to see a cite that these alarms do any measurable good.

Yet another reason for me to embrace suburbia.

[ataraxy22]

My office is six floors above the building's loading dock and two or three times a week there is that infernal BEEP BEEP BEEP from trucks for thirty minutes. I can't maintain my concentration with it, so now I take a break or eat lunch when it starts.

I can understand loud. But why loud and obnoxious?

Also, I am certain more people are killed per year due to people driven into murderous rages by the beeping than are killed by trucks backing up and crushing them.

[Jeep's Phoenix]

I would guess that people get used to loud noises; by making it obnoxious, you're making it very hard for those exposed to it every day to ignore it.

[Snowboarder Bo]

I would REALLY like to see a cite that these alarms do any measurable good.

Apparently, they do some good, but could be done differently with hopefully better results and less annoyance. Cite (http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.119-a30).

[Zany Zeolite Zipper]

Most industrial sites that I'm familiar with now require a flag-person whenever a large truck is backing-up. What this usually means for contractors is that a truck that normally just had a driver now has a driver and a flag-person. Think what it would do to your unemployment if you Yanks mandated a flag-person for all reversing large trucks!

[curlcoat]

I would REALLY like to see a cite that these alarms do any measurable good.

I can't do that for you, but I can tell you when I was driving a big truck with a back up bell, people would routinely walk right behind it as I was backing up. It was only because I was extremely paranoid about watching my mirrors that I didn't hit anyone, but there was one close call where a guy smacked the back of the truck when I got too close to him. I jumped out of the cab and ran around to make sure I hadn't hit anyone to find this pissed off guy yelling at me for not watching where I was going! Uh, dude? I can't see directly behind me, hence the back up bell? Duh.

Yet another reason for me to embrace suburbia.

Oh, we still have them - garbage trucks every Wednesday morning (three each day), construction trucks, UPS, etc.

[flatlined]

I can't do that for you, but I can tell you when I was driving a big truck with a back up bell, people would routinely walk right behind it as I was backing up. It was only because I was extremely paranoid about watching my mirrors that I didn't hit anyone, but there was one close call where a guy smacked the back of the truck when I got too close to him. I jumped out of the cab and ran around to make sure I hadn't hit anyone to find this pissed off guy yelling at me for not watching where I was going! Uh, dude? I can't see directly behind me, hence the back up bell? Duh.

I have back up bells on my van. I also honk my horn. I can't SEE, get out of my way.

It makes me crazy when people look at my van, they even make eye contact with me and then they run behind me anyhow.

As for not using them...I have a crippled friend who was working construction and someone disabled their beepers and backed up over my friend. He's got lots of money now. He will never get his leg back.

Once, I almost ran a kid over backing out of a grocery store parking lot in my car. I was looking around, using my mirrors and moving out slowly. One of those very responsible parents let her toddler run to their car behind my car and I knocked him on his butt because I couldn't see him.

Please, parents of small children, don't let them run around in parking lots. They are hard to see and if their small size makes it so that someone can't see them while backing out, bad things could happen.

[Rhythmdvl]

I have back up bells on my van. Considering your username, do they go BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP?

[Rigamarole]

Don't even get me started about the loud-ass barking dogs in my neighborhood. Oh how I want to cook up some special, poisoned steaks and slip them to them in the dead of the night. (I wouldn't do it but yes, I've considered murdering a dog before - it's that fucking obnoxious and persistent)

That and the jackasses with motorcycles (and the occasional unmuffled car engine) louder than jet engines roaring down the roads at every time of day and night. Do these assholes think everyone is ooohing and ahhhing at how powerful their engines are? A close cousin of these guys are the ones who go around with booming stereos that can shake the foundation of every building within a 10-block radius. Fuck them all. Fuck them in the ass.

[Astral Rejection]

I wonder if rear-view cameras wouldn't be a better option? My car has one, and it's totally changed how I back out of a spot. If I'm parked on a slanted-space parking lot, I can see the entire way down the lane, and due to the 'fish eye' effect things directly behind me are exaggeratedly large. It would be incredibly difficult for me to accidentally hit something while backing up.

They can't be that expensive. Why not just make it a standard safety feature?

[Nava]

And at 7 am on a Saturday morning in a residential neighborhood, it doesn't need to be that goddamn loud!

7? The garbage trucks in my neighborhood come any time between 11pm and 6am, and it's daily! If I ever get hold of the city councilor in charge of that...

[Mangetout]

...quietly alerting people to the fact they're about to be squashed like a bug...

Quoted for unintentional humour.

Yes, if I'm about to be squished, I would like to be alerted quietly. Quiet alerts. Nextly, I'd like to tone down the palette of warning colours from garish angry reds, oranges and yellows. Something subtle involving pastels.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

You want sucky? I'll give you sucky!!

The local Army/Navy store had an African Grey parrot that would imitate everything -- with 100% fidelity -- from the door opening and closing to the phone ringing. But it's absolute favorite was a truck's back-up alarm. FAVORITE!!

I asked the guy behind the counter how-the-hell many times had the bird heard it? His response, with a murderous glance at the parrot: "Once."

Awesome post/username combo.

[jz78817]

or anything on four wheels for that matter, really. I understand that someone right behind a large truck might benefit from a subtle reminder that said truck is about to run him or her over. But such a reminder only has to be heard by those people that are in the direct vicinity of that truck, not people that are half a mile away. Still, it seems as though trucks are dedicated not only to quietly alerting people to the fact they're about to be squashed like a bug, but also to waking the dead in a 5 block radius. And not only trucks, it seems as though anything the size of a shopping cart is outfitted with those hellish alarms these days. Fuck all those fucking fuckers!

to be fair:

1) they have to be annoying, that's how they get your attention. Ever wonder why alarm clocks have such a screechy tone? Same reason, it's unpleasant and attention-getting.

2) having driven box trucks, the lack of a rear-view mirror is really limiting. The driver cannot see anything directly behind the truck! Sorry it bothers you, but I'd rather not have to live with having injured or killed someone by backing over them.

[Švejk]

Thanks to those who endorse me. To those who stress that there's worse things in the world, you're right, but if only those people got to post here who have a legitimate beef with the universe ("Fuck this fucking famine - Get us some food down here in Africa already!!!") and all other pit threads were disallowed, we could probably dispense with the pit. There's always someone who has it worse, thank goodness! But yesterday I was raging (:mad:) and wanted to vent so I would feel better (:)).

As for all the horrible stories of people run over - unless I can get a cite that this system saves lives and there's no other way that would work at least as well (and I don't believe such a cite is forthcoming) I am going to stick with my rant. For the moment, I think the balance between individual responsibility and the collective burden is way off.

Finally - whatever you might find funny about my posts, I meant for you to find funny. It's all *intentional*, my humor!

[Tom Tildrum]

The truck drivers who service the loading docks in my office building and the one across the alley every day have apparently determined that the backup beepers are not sufficient, so they honk their horns multiple times too.

[kath94]

<snip>
ETA: Another big point made by the NPC people is that those abominable car alarms don't even do much to prevent theft, actually, since everybody ignores them anyway, and even the insurance companies say so. So much for the alarms that cried wolf a little too much. And in fact, the recent issue of Via, the American Auto Club magazine, even has an item to that effect.

In fact, it seems to me that I'm hearing car alarms a little less often now than I did a few years ago. Are they (hopefully) fading in popularity?

This is my complaint. People ignore them unless they find out its THEIR car. I'm all for making the key fob make the same obnoxious noise as the car alarm. That way you'll know its YOUR car and you'll at least pay attention to it!

[Harborwolf]

Well...that's what the OP gets for sleeping in a construction site.Reminds me of the local snowplow driver. Always comes by and does a remarkably thorough job of plowing the street. At least he tries. I know he tries because at three in the morning he's driving up the street....and backing (beep beep beep) up, and driving up the street again....and backing (beep beep beep) up. Then he turns the corner and drives up the street....and backs (beep beep beep) up. Then back up the street......and back (beep beep beep) again. Then he turns a different way and goes up the street........then he backs (beep beep beep) up.

And this isn't blizzard plowing either. This is maybe a quarter inch of snow. He will not rest until every last single solitary snowflake is plowed out of the road. Nobody else will rest either. Maybe that's the point though. God knows if I was out of my comfy comfy bed at three in the morning, I'd be pissed enough to punish those still sleeping.

[Mangetout]

Perhaps you can rant quietly. It should be just as effective.

[Isamu]

A flashing light would be as effective and less annoying, perhaps.

[Mangetout]

A flashing light would be as effective and less annoying, perhaps.

Yes - then when people who were looking at the vehicle reversing toward them saw the light flashing, they would instantly know the vehicle they were watching reverse toward them, was reversing toward them.

[Isamu]

Yes - then when people who were looking at the vehicle reversing toward them saw the light flashing, they would instantly know the vehicle they were watching reverse toward them, was reversing toward them.

Well, since most people object to the noise at night, then yeah, unless they were blind, they'd notice a flashing light even if they weren't facing the vehicle. In short, lights at night, beeps in the daytime. (This might pose some problems in extremely well-lit places, I can see)

[Anaamika]

I think everyone who steps out behind a truck without the slightest awareness of their surroundings should be beaten with a wiffle bat.

And don't tell me kids. Kids wouldn't listen even if the truck was shouting 'MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!'

[Cat Whisperer]

<snip>For the moment, I think the balance between individual responsibility and the collective burden is way off.<snip>That's it - that's the term I've been looking for to describe the way school and playground zones are handled in this city - the collective burden is way, way up, and the individual responsibility is non-existent.

This is my complaint. People ignore them unless they find out its THEIR car. I'm all for making the key fob make the same obnoxious noise as the car alarm. That way you'll know its YOUR car and you'll at least pay attention to it!I LOVE this idea! If your alarm is going to bother me (and everyone else on this block), then it should be bothering you, too.

Yes - then when people who were looking at the vehicle reversing toward them saw the light flashing, they would instantly know the vehicle they were watching reverse toward them, was reversing toward them.
This made me laugh way too much. :)

[The Flying Dutchman]

I once worked on a coroner's inquest into the death of a man run over by a cement truck. He was a work site foreman distracted (fatally) by someone driving inappropriately onto the site - he turned around to wave this poor woman off, and the truck crushed him. The driver couldn't see him.

His death was mercifully quick but gruesome in the extreme. The truck basically squeezed his body like a tube of toothpaste in the middle, causing his guts to spurt out of both ends.

The woman driving the car was traumatized by the sight, as was the poor guy driving the truck. Seeing the scene pics, I'm not suprised.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that the slight annoyance caused by loud beeping is probably worth it, if it avoids stuff like that even in a few cases.

I agree. And remember, a lot of people especially construction workers have hearing disabilities. To ad to that, a lot of guys subconciously tune out irritating noise unless it is too loud.

Back in 1976 on a dam construction site in northwestern Ontario, a 76 year old tandem truck driver was slowly backing up on the core of the dam in order to damp his load of glacial till. As he was backing up he noticed his 16 year old spotter sprawled out in front of him. As the construction surveyor, I was asked to document the location after the body was removed . I used the brains as a point of reference and as soon as I left, a dozer pushed the dirt in order to make the evidence disappear. Very soon afterwards the back up signal became mandatory for construction vehicles in Ontario. I believe.

[Roland Orzabal]

I think everyone who steps out behind a truck without the slightest awareness of their surroundings should be beaten with a wiffle bat.

And don't tell me kids. Kids wouldn't listen even if the truck was shouting 'MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!'Fucking THANK you.

As I was going to post while reading through the thread before I knew that at least one person agreed with me: I know that blaming the victim is considered crass*, but I have to think that the overall problem would be largely solved by people having the situational awareness to not get backed into by a fucking truck in the first place. For those who might find this difficult, may I recommend a bit of light reading (http://www.amazon.com/Avoid-Huge-Ships-John-Trimmer/dp/0870334336); you may find these principles applicable in many situations.

*...by people who aren't me. Responsibility isn't zero-sum, and while wrong-doers are always 100% culpable, victims are assigned their own blame rating based on how much of a dingus they were being at the time, on a scale of 1 to walked into the path of a moving goddamn truck.**

**Okay, boating into the path of a huge ship is probably worse.

[Mangetout]

I think we should just write to people to tell them that a vehicle is about to run them over.

[Darth Panda]

I think everyone who steps out behind a truck without the slightest awareness of their surroundings should be beaten with a wiffle bat.

This could work. Instead of beeps, trucks could have a barrage of wiffle ball bats attached to the back of the truck with mechanisms to swing them back and forth and relatively high speeds. Then, if you were in the way of a backing up truck, you would be beaten by wiffle ball bats and alarmed to the truck coming towards you.

I like it.

eta: In Europe, the flag person could be given a wiffle ball bat instead, and whenever someone got in the way, they would go start smacking them around.

[Mangetout]

I like that idea, and I don't even know what a Wiffle *is*.

[Anaamika]

This could work. Instead of beeps, trucks could have a barrage of wiffle ball bats attached to the back of the truck with mechanisms to swing them back and forth and relatively high speeds. Then, if you were in the way of a backing up truck, you would be beaten by wiffle ball bats and alarmed to the truck coming towards you.

I like it.

eta: In Europe, the flag person could be given a wiffle ball bat instead, and whenever someone got in the way, they would go start smacking them around.

Now I'm snorting with laughter and my coworker just gave me a :dubious: look. Thanks. I am SO in!

Mangetout, a wiffle bat is a plastic bat, sometimes with holes. It doesn't hurt as much to be hit by one, but it stings and is kind of humiliating. Here:

Wiffle Bat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiffle_ball)

[flatlined]

Me thinks that Darth Panda is a genius.

[Lust4Life]

I worked next to a depot that had the reversing beepers on all day every day, didn't bother me.

But on another occassion I worked on a construction site twenty feet away from an amusement arcade.

There was a machine there that automatically played the first seven notes of" I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" period of silence.........then DAh DA DA DA DAh !
Over and OVER a fucking gain.

ALL FUCKING DAY !

Drove me crackers.