Damned semi

The BBQ Pit
1

I don’t Pit very often, but I had two incidents over the weekend that are worthy. Below is substantially the same text as the letter that I actually wrote to the company, save for changing names to protect the innocent and to mock the guilty.

Sorry, I can’t tell a story as well as Tuckerfan, and I didn’t use any fucking cuss words in the letter.

                                                                                       Vunderbob
                                                                                       The VunderLair
                                                                                       SE Virginia

General Manager
Trucking Company That Deserves My Wrath
Somewhere in Tennessee

9 May 2005

Madam or Sir:

This letter is a formal complaint, regarding an incident today that nearly cost my wife and me our lives.

At approximately 3:20 PM EDT, I attempted to overtake and pass a truck belonging to your company on I-64 in eastern Kentucky. We came out of a construction zone behind the truck at a significant distance (roughly 1/2 mile), and maintained our position in the left lane the entire time. The truck went into the right lane. This is significant, because I was never in his blind spot for him to claim he didn’t see me. We overtook the truck in our respective lanes, and as we were at the midpoint of his trailer, he violently moved left, running us onto the left shoulder. I managed to avoid a collision with the trailer AND simultaneously managed to stay out of the grass in the median. He pulled past and we managed to get back into our lane in time to avoid a bridge and the associated mid-median guardrails.

This was not the only bone-headed maneuver he pulled. On two occasions, as we closed the distance to overtake him before the incident, he abruptly moved left as he passed other vehicles, as though he was driving a sports car instead of a loaded rig. After our near collision, he attempted to avoid us at speeds exceeding 80 miles per hour. We gave chase to record the data that is included below.

We followed him into the eastbound weigh station before the West Virginia state line, and attempted to swear out a criminal complaint. It was his luck that the troopers did not personally witness the event, and by Kentucky law, they could not take our complaint.

Here are the facts of the event as we recorded them:

• Trucking Company That Deserves My Wrath cab; no tag noticed
• no DOT registration number recorded
• Flatbed trailer with Pennsylvania plate xxxxx and company number yyy
• The load on the trailer was barrier fencing
• Time of incident: 1530 EDT, 9 May 2005
• I-64 eastbound, between mile markers 137 and 138
• The driver was 30ish, dark haired, and with a moustache.

I fully expect that with the use of OmniTrax, you know exactly who the driver was. Furthermore, we expect this complaint to generate disciplinary action against this driver and his records. I demand satisfaction, and a pound of his butt in our mailbox would be a good start.

VunderBob

2

Yep. Most truckers are professionals, but some of 'em are cowboys and shouldn’t be on the road.

Some bus drivers too. Here’s my letter:

Good Morning,

Having moved to the Liverpool area a year ago, I have generally found
your buses to be clean and comfortable, and your drivers professional,
friendly, and well-presented. Unfortunately, yesterday I had an
experience which went against your company’s generally excellent
service.

I caught a bus at about 10:40am on Congressional Drive at the Links
Estate to take me to Liverpool Station. It was being driven by a
driver with the authority number xxxxxx. During the course of the
journey, a series of events happened which left me seriously
concerned, and quite relieved when I was able to leave the bus at my
destination.

  • When I boarded the bus, I said “station, thanks mate” to the driver,
    and was answered with a kind of grunt. The driver then started
    pulling my change out of his coin tray, but looked confused, and put
    some of it back then replaced it with smaller denomination coins. I
    could also see that he was in a rather bad mood. Nonetheless, I
    thought nothing more of this, and went and took a seat about four or
    five rows back on the right hand side of the bus.

  • At the intersection of Congressional Drive/Reilly St and the Hume
    Hwy, we had a green light, and the bus was positioned a little way
    into the intersection waiting for oncoming traffic (ex-Reilly St) to
    clear before turning right onto the highway towards Liverpool. The
    last car coming out of Reilly St was also turning towards Liverpool,
    and therefore had right of way over the bus. At this point the bus
    driver leaned on the horn and moved off before it was safe to do so
    (too close behind the turning car).

  • At the next bus stop (on the Hume), a woman got on and asked for a
    concession of some kind. She did not have her card handy, and when the
    driver demanded to see it, she went to retrieve it from her handbag,
    and while doing this she smiled at a woman sitting in the front seat
    and said something about “some people never want to look at the card”.
    The driver snapped, “WELL I’M NOT ‘SOME PEOPLE’!”.

  • At the large Hoxton Park Rd intersection, there was a queue of
    traffic turning right to go towards Terminus St. The last two
    vehicles in this queue were earthmoving trucks. As the queue was long,
    the last truck was slightly blocking the through lane, as he had
    nowhere else to go, and the right turn arrow was still red. Once
    again, our driver gave a hefty blast of horn. The horn was sounded
    after we had gone around the truck, and as and were passing the
    truck’s cab. It can therefore have no other purpose than to indicate
    anger.

  • As we turned right off the Hume Hwy, the bus needed considerable
    turning room to negotiate the various traffic islands. This involves
    momentarily pulling close to the left hand footpath on the side
    street. Yesterday, there was a man using a leaf blower on that
    footpath. He did not see the bus, and had stepped off the footpath to
    blow leaves along the gutter. When we turned, rather than stop and
    sound the horn, the driver turned as he normally would, nearly hitting
    this man. He did not use the horn.

  • At a left turn in the CBD, we were facing a green light, but the bus
    was required to wait for pedestrians to clear the adjacent crossing
    before turning. After a few seconds, our driver appeared sick of
    waiting and started nosing the bus around the corner, as if trying to
    make the pedestrians scatter. The last to clear the crossing were an
    elderly couple, and the driver took the bus seemingly within inches of
    them, and accelerated hard.

  • Near Westfields, there was a busy bus stop where several people
    asked out driver questions. They were all met with a rude, impatient
    raised voice. It went something like this:
    WOMAN: Excuse me, where does this bus go?
    DRIVER: STATION!!
    SECOND WOMAN: Where do you go after the station?
    DRIVER: I’M GOING HOME! IT’S THE END OF MY SHIFT!!
    SMALL BOY (just arrived and standing on the bottom step of the bus):
    Does this bus go to …?
    DRIVER: NO!!!
    SMALL BOY: Where does it…
    DRIVER: GET OFF!!!

  • Near the Liverpool Hospital, there was an intersection where the bus
    was to continue straight ahead, but there was a car in front which was
    turning left. This car had to wait for pedestrians to finish crossing
    on the side street before it could move, so it was momentarily (but
    legally) blocking the bus’ path. The bus driver gave another long
    blast of horn, and swerved around the car.

  • On arrival at the bus terminus, a TransitWay bus was pulling out
    from the stand. Rather than slow to let his colleague move off, our
    driver maintained his speed and hit the horn yet again. The two buses
    were inches apart, and the T Way driver had to stop suddenly to avoid
    a collision.

  • When we arrived, the woman who had had earlier trouble with the
    consession card smiled at the driver and said ‘thanks’. The driver
    (who I could see in his mirror) stared straight ahead scowling, and
    said something which I didn’t quite catch, but I did hear the biting,
    sarcastic tone. It was something like “don’t make me get up”.

I can assure you I have never been so happy to get on a train as I was
yesterday.

I am not normally given to firing off letters of complaint, and if
this had involved a shop assistant or somesuch I probably wouldn’t
have bothered. However, as it involved the driver of a heavy vehicle,
I felt duty bound to do so. I don’t know what the driver’s problem was
yesterday, but there is no way he was in a fit frame of mind to be
behind the wheel of a bus. It was at best unprofessional, and at worst
downright dangerous.

I must also note that he did not appear to be affected by alcohol.

Thanks for your time. I am sufficiently worried about this man that I
have considered contacting the Department of Transport, but as I am
otherwise happy with your services, I will give you the opportunity
to review this “in house” first, and maybe you will be able to resolve
this matter yourselves.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Kind Regards,
Me
That was a month ago and they haven’t replied, so I’ll report 'em to the Department, I think. I did give them the opportunity to deal with it themselves, but having received not so much as a one line response, screw 'em.

3

Um, how satisfying is a pound of trucker butt?

Glad to know you and the missus weren’t hurt. Did he (the driver) say anything about what happened when y’all were at the weigh station?

4

VunderBob and TheLoadedDog, just daaay-ummm! Bob, I’m glad you and VunderWife are ok. That and nutjob are just too much to deal with in one weekend.

Classic VunderBob! HEEHEEHEE You didn’t really say that in the letter did you? I’m willing to believe you did, but, really, did you? <snerk>

5

Yeah, I really said that…

6

Never a doubt in my mind, my friend, never a doubt. I hope they ship it overnight. That way it’ll be fresher.

7

I’m still at a loss as to how that’s satisfying. And at a pound of it, it would hardly be filling.

8

Well, I understand there are people who like to pound trucker butt…

9

That all depends. If you stretch it out with breadcrumbs, bell pepper, onion, and egg you could have a nice buttloaf that would feed a family of four with leftovers for sammiches the next day.

Did somebody page me?

10

Damn! I thought that guy only existed in the funny pages.

11

Unfortunately, a lot of the private bus drivers in the Liverpool/Fairfield area seem to be of the cowboy variety. I had similar problems with a bus driver going to Fairfield Station one day (snappish, speeding, not obeying the road rules, etc.), and ended up sending a letter to that particular bus company too. No response in over eight months, and I ended up moving back to Adelaide, so I don’t know if anything ever came of it.

12

How’s my driving?
Call 1-800-EAT-SHIT

13

This would be a good time for VunderBob to pick up a copy of Lawrence Block’s “Like A Bug On The Windshield”.
Good over-the-edge trucker short story.

14

Or Duel.

15

I have two instances to share.
The first happened about 9 years ago when I was about 16. My mother, stepfather, stepbrother, and I had driven from Massachusetts to Maryland to visit friends. However, the day after we arrived, my stepdad had to return to MA to help his dad with a problem. I decided to go up with them as I needed to talk to my boss in person (I was quitting). Just after we crossed into Connecticut, the sky let loose with a massive thunderstorm. We were the only car on the road. I was lying on the back seat reading a book. Suddenly my mother started freaking out and for the first time, I heard my stepdad swear. Curious, I got up to see what the problem was. Out of the back window, I saw two trucks (one of them a tandem) quickly approaching us - one in the right lane, one in the left. As they pulled alongside us, both started to pull towards us. They each actually came into our lane as much as possible without hitting us…and stayed there. About a minute later, they both sped up and left us in their wake, literally. The spray of water from the two trucks was so massive that we couldn’t see more than a foot in front of the windshield. Now, right before we left for Maryland two days earlier, my mom and stepdad had bought a CB radio to break the monotony of the drive. We heard what the truck drivers were saying after the incident. They did it on purpose. For my mom and me, it was an especially terrifying event. The reason my mom and stepdad became close and started dating was because the first year we went to Maryland to visit our friends, we had no car. My stepdad was also friends with this family and instead of driving his pickup down, he decided to take the train with us to make sure we were safe on the trip. They became close and were married within 7 months. The reason we had no car…earlier that year, we had been in a terrifying collision with an 18 wheeler during a snowstorm. For years my mother and I both had issues with sharing the road with trucks and I was afraid of being on the road during storms of any kind.

The second incident didn’t involve me. For many years, the hospital my mom worked for would organize a family trip to NYC 2 times a year. The cost was minimal and included a bus trip to NYC, a movie each way, and usually tickets for something fun to do in the city. The last time my mom and stepdad went, I didn’t go. Apparently, on the trip back to MA, the driver was acting a little strange. He would speed one minute and crawl the next. He couldn’t stay in his own lane. He kept driving over the ridges on the side of the road. Thinking he was just really tired and was falling asleep, one of the passangers moved to the front of the bus to chat up the driver, hoping to keep him awake. Once the driver started talking, the first 4 rows of passangers all smelled alcohol. Since no one on the bus had any clue how to drive they were stuck with him. This was about 13 years ago. I don’t know how common cell phones were back then but apparently no one on the bus had one. When the bus stopped for food at the half way point, someone called the hospital and a new driver was brought in for the remainder of the trip. Thankfully no one was hurt and not surprisingly, no more NYC trips were scheduled after that.