# Fuck You, Truck Drivers on the 5 Freeway! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 30, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884 "2004-04-30T18:26:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/21 "2004-05-01T00:35:46Z")
Well, hey… as long as the gas companies can make bigger profits! [ChevronTexaco parlays high gas prices into higher profits](http://presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204%257E25895%257E2119362,00.html) [quote] ChevronTexaco credited higher gas prices for a big chunk of its first-quarter earnings gains. In the U.S. division responsible for oil refining and gasoline sales recorded a first-quarter profit of $276 million, nearly quadrupling from $70 million at the same time last year. The recent spike in gas prices has prompted some pointed criticism among politicians and consumer groups who believe oil companies are gouging motorists to fatten their bottom lines. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/22 "2004-05-01T00:36:50Z")
Er…pretend I didn’t mess up the quote tags in my above post, please. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/23 "2004-05-01T00:51:13Z")
Sounds like these protesters took their protesting lessons from French farmers. (As I recall, this is a common tactic for Gaellic Growers to protest when they grow too much food… they drive their trucks into Paris and cause traffic jams… Whose sympathy they’re trying to elicit, I could never figure out.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/24 "2004-05-01T01:06:59Z")
One of the things I liked about SoCal is that motorcycles can ride between lanes of traffic. I loved being able to get home quickly on my 43-mile commute. (And I was getting 45 mpg to boot; so high gas prices didn’t hurt as much!) ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/25 "2004-05-01T01:33:19Z")
Hey, wait a minute! These truck drivers frightened thousands of people, while committing an act of civil disobedience! (consults Bush Administration Lexicon) TERRORISTS!!! We should immediately impound their vehicles, then auction them off to the highest bidder, and have the Justice Department confiscate the proceeds, so’s to prevent these criminals from using their own assets to defend themselves (as per RICO) and arrest and detain each and every driver who participated, deny them the right to see lawyers (or much of anyone else) and hold them indefinitely without trial or even charging them with a crime. They’re _terrorists_, after all. President says so. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/26 "2004-05-01T01:39:16Z")
And that’s one of the things I hated about L.A., **Johnny L.A.** , especially since that’s where I learned to drive. Nothing to scare beginner driver me more than somebody on a motorcycle roaring up between lanes… Seeing as I DID learn to drive there, man, that sort of “protest” is some serious asshattedness. ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/27 "2004-05-01T03:36:23Z")
Considering the exorbitant traffic infraction fines for truckers in California (a minor log book violation $3000.00), the towing charges, impound fees and bail the fools will probably have to sell their trucks to pay for it all. I mean how hard will it be to trace who owns the trucks. :wally ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/28 "2004-05-01T03:51:23Z")
> [@Tinkertoy](#): > > Considering the exorbitant traffic infraction fines for truckers in California (a minor log book violation $3000.00), the towing charges, impound fees and bail the fools will probably have to sell their trucks to pay for it all. I mean how hard will it be to trace who owns the trucks. :wally Not hard because they arrested the fools on a nearby side street. That’s how the were able to move the trucks, according to the report I heard, it was very difficult to find towing trucks for all the rigs. The police had to take the keys from them. ---
**Author:** ![Tansu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tansu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tansu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/29 "2004-05-01T12:57:13Z")
Shit, fuck and damn - that reminds me of the September 2000 fuel protests in the UK. [a link](http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/8/newsid_2503000/2503119.stm) It was a pain in the arse. Go slows, fuel blockades, panic buying, the fucking lot. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/30 "2004-05-01T19:47:30Z")
Found this in this morning’s paper (the AP article). > **[The Desert Sun | Palm Springs and Coachella Valley news](https://www.desertsun.com)** > > The latest Palm Springs area news from The Desert Sun newspaper in the California desert. Coachella Valley photos, obituaries and events calendar. > [@](#): > > Truckers protesting gas prices snarl traffic > > The Associated Press > May 1, 2004 > > LOS ANGELES --Independent truckers protested mounting diesel fuel prices Friday by abandoning trucks in rush-hour traffic on one of the region’s busiest freeways… > > \< snip \> > > \*\*Police had been tipped the night before \*\*and were prepared with tow trucks that cleared all the lanes within an hour along Interstate 5 in Commerce. Five truckers were arrested. Bolding mine. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/31 "2004-05-02T02:21:01Z")
> [@Duck Duck Goose](#): > > Found this in this morning’s paper (the AP article). > > [http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/state/20040501012428.shtml](http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/state/20040501012428.shtml). That article is a perfect example of what I figured was going to happen. It’s the last two paragraphs that should be important to truck drivers, not the cost of gas itself. I wish they could get their act together and get _that_ message across. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/32 "2004-05-02T23:14:02Z")
Someone should tell the truckers to be like real men and tough it out until mid-October. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/33 "2004-05-03T15:58:05Z")
> [@bughunter](#): > > Sounds like these protesters took their protesting lessons from French farmers. > > (As I recall, this is a common tactic for Gaellic Growers to protest when they grow too much food… they drive their trucks into Paris and cause traffic jams… Whose sympathy they’re trying to elicit, I could never figure out.) I don’t know the group, but doesn’t Gaelic usually refer to the Scottish and Irish peoples? France was Gaul, no? [sub] See? It isn’t just modern people who associate gall with the French…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884/34 "2004-05-04T00:48:36Z")
> [@lurkernomore](#): > > France was Gaul, no?[/sub] :smack: Oui. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-truck-drivers-on-the-5-freeway/242884.md?page=1)