Check the sig.
Why didn’t you just remain stopped, and wait for the truck to move on? I know it’s inconvenient, but you have to put your inconvenience on one arm of the scale and risk to human life on the other. If the man had stepped out in front of you, no matter how slowly you were going (and especially with “just enough space to get by”) you would have committed a vehicular assault. You really can’t think of the road as an obstacle course, and garbage men as sprites that will give you extra points if you dodge them. Somewhere at some message board, there is a garbage man posting in a rant forum that he looked up and suddenly some jerk in a two-ton weapon came out of a blind spot on a road with barely enough room for the car and truck, let alone a human being into the mix. You keep owning up to these problems you’re having and taking responsibility for them, and that’s nice. But you need to reorder your priorities. If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on seeing what you’ve always seen.
Not everyone has sigs enabled.
I don’t know if you ever took driver’s lessons or not, but even though cash is tight you can still download and read some safe driving manuals
(The link is for BC, but there may be something in your state)
Just read them mindfully, and then go practice driving again. But most importantly, don’t sweat being nervous. Many people have been in serious accidents and gone on to drive again (heck, half of my family has been hit by 18-wheelers in 3 separate crashes!)
I didn’t know about that. For those who don’t:
Sounds to me like an over-reaction by a guy who is shaken up by the deaths of four co-workers last month, and nothing at all to do with you or your driving skills. I imagine losing four co-workers would be rather a blow to your sense of safety on the job and would probably make you very, very nervy.
Airman… your just suffering temporary “scared”. I’ve been through much worse and I’m a confessed irresponsible driver. I once got the “shakes” after skidding and slamming my car into a lampost.
Two weeks later I was back to “normal”… much more cautious when its raining… but I still enjoy driving.
So take it easy for 2-3 weeks and it will pass… the garbage guy was just venting unto you his own anxieties and problems. You weren’t guilty of anything.
hug Airman
(with permission from any SOs, eh!)
I was in a car crash many years ago, when a tire blew in a curve. The people at work, my dad, everybody would tell me “what, you don’t know what brakes are for?” Thanks God the mechanic in the factory told me, “kid, actually the WORSE thing you could have done is smash the brake; if you had, you’d have hit that concrete piling head-on, and that sure would’a been a waste of head!” (instead of lifting my feet when I saw the brake wasn’t behaving and steering the car so it skimmed against the piling… the side looked awful but neither the motor nor me got hurt). He advised wearing my L for a while, do you have those where you live?
You see, in Spain, people who’ve had their driver’s license for less than 3 months must carry a placard that’s a white L on green background. They can’t drive over 80km/h (about 45mph), and once you’ve had your license for 3 months you’re not supposed to use it any more (you can get a fine). The fine is small, though, and the placard acts as a sign saying “hi, I am nervous and have to go slow and may do something unexpected”, so I did wear it for about a week and it helped… seeing the L, people were patient with me going slow and extra-careful.
A friend of mine used the same when she started driving for real. Her license was 5 years old at that time, but she hadn’t barely touched a car since she got it.
On the other hand, maybe fuckhead will realize he shares the road, and that people like Airman don’t have all day. What the hell is the big deal, he didn’t hit him, stop freaking out.
There is also another term for it, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I did not read your other thread about your car accident but it does seem to me that you may be suffering from PTSD. PTSD can be caused by accidents, illness or any other traumatic event. I know the Army no has a program for anonymous help for any such problems. I don’t know if the Air Force has something similar. The Army’s program is called Army OneSource.
I’d have to agree. If I make a mistake while driving, I’ll submit myself to whatever bitching anyone wants to dish out at me. But if I’m in the right and someone bitches at me, fuck 'em. There’s plenty of people doing stupid shit in cars for us all to bitch about; there’s no need to invent wrongdoing.
Airman, just some sympathy here. I had two minor fender-benders and a few near-misses in a fairly short period of time. It pretty much destroyed my confidence in myself as a driver. But since I have to drive, I do, and the longer it’s been, the better I feel. I’m just very cautious and make sure I get plenty of sleep (since sleep-deprivation seemed to play a role in the two fender-benders.)
Actually, you sound as though you are freaking out. 
And I don’t think you’re right. It is my understanding that people who are on the roads without cars (such as pedestrians, road crews, and garbage men) are given priority and right-of-way over cars. The “sharing” is very one-sided.
To my knoweldge very few states have California style pedestrian right of way laws. (much lamented by the late Bill Hicks). Unless I am mistaken, pedestrians have the right of way at crosswalks, crossing at any other location is jaywalking. In addition, the law states that drivers have to stop at school busses (and often emergency vehicles) I do not believe garbage trucks are covered.
Not garbage trucks, garbage men — municipal workers, the discharge of whose duties requires them to step into the street. I’m no lawyer, but I’d be surprised to find a judge or jury who, under ordinary circumstances, would rule against such men and in favor of the cars that hit them.
I don’t think that there’s a judge in the world that favors a motorist over a pedestrian of any sort.
That said, in Pennsylvania you are required to stop only for buses. This guy took about 15 minutes to get down the street to my house, and Robin had school to get to, so I carefully creeped past the truck.
He decided that I had done something wrong. I’m just tired of driving, because recently all I’ve done is made mistakes. That this wasn’t doesn’t make me any less nervous.
I’m not so sure.
Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, Title 75, Chapter 15. Authorized Vehicles and Special Operating Privileges, § 15.2. Types of authorized vehicles:
(3) Type III. Garbage trucks and vehicles used for home delivery of United States mail or newspapers.
Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, Title 75, Chapter 33, Subchapter B, § 3326, Duty of driver in construction and maintenance areas:
(b) Work vehicles displaying flashing lights.–The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to any authorized vehicle obviously and actually engaged in work upon a highway whenever the vehicle displays flashing lights meeting the requirements and regulations promulgated by the department.
© Fines to be doubled.–The fine for any of the following violations, when committed in a construction or maintenance area manned by workers acting in their official capacity, shall be double the usual amount:
Section 3714 (relating to careless driving
PennsylvaniaVehicle Code, Title 75, Part III Operation of Vehicles, Chapter 37, Miscellaneous Provisions, § 3714, Careless driving):
Any person who drives a vehicle in careless disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of careless driving, a summary offense.
What are you trying to say here, Lib? That Airman should have crept down the street behind the garbage truck, stopping every time it did, just as if it had been a school bus? 'Cause if you are, that’s bullshit. You’ve taken three completely different sections of the Pa. code and attempted to assemble a whole out of it.
The first section establishes that a garbage truck is an authorized municiple vehicle for purposes of the second section. The second section establishes that careless driving is a statutory offense for purposes of the third section. The third section defines careless driving.
(Note that it was not sufficient to cite careless driving in se because, when it involves authorized vehicles in the performance of their work, the penalties are doubled. See Title 75, Chapter 33, Subchapter B, § 3326, ©.)