BEEP BEEP BEEP - Trucks backing up

[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]

@Svejk_1

<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.

@kath94

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.

@Mangetout

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]

@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.

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]

@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!’

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; 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]

@Anaamika

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]

@Darth_Panda

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

[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.