BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Tennessee Boaters Killed By Tug and Barges

Harry [_3_]

On 6/26/10 11:44 AM, I am Tosk wrote:
In article11e91536-8ccd-4dcb-a994-0b4dd6b333f0
@c33g2000yqm.googlegroups.com, says...

On Jun 25, 2:56 pm, wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Jun 24, 8:19 am, I am wrote:

In articled7d0cc54-b70c-4ae3-97cc-
,
says...

On Jun 23, 8:06 pm, wrote:
"I am wrote in
l-september.org...

In article1660a4fc-2c0c-46bd-a669-a72a65d5d112
@b35g2000yqi.googlegroups.com, says...

On Jun 22, 10:34 pm,
wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:29:00 -0400, W1TEF

wrote:

Even more so...

"None of the people in the fishing boat were wearing life
jackets at
time of accident."

Sad.

It is sad, and it's really not clear exactly how it could have
been
avoided other than greater vigilance/keeping out of the way. I
have
to admit that I'm not much into wearing life jackets either
except
under the most extreme circumstances, and it's not really clear
that
wearing a life jacket will save you from being run over by 8
barges
and a tug. Probably not is my guess but you never know.

They probably became distracted by their fishing and didn't
notice the
barges until too late, or perhaps their engine failed to start at
the
critical juncture, or maybe they had an anchor own and couldn't
get
it up, etc. There are lots of possibilities I suppose but it does
drive home the danger associated with small recreational boats
mixing
in with large commercial traffic.

One has to wonder if the tug operator suffers from the same malady
that many of the 18 wheeler drivers do. The "I'm a 'professional'
driver, and these mere regular people in their cars and trucks need
to
get out of my way" attitude. Rules of navigation notwithstanding,
it's on his conscience now.

Must be a local thing... Most truckdrivers here are pretty good on
the
road. They hate to crash, slows them down plenty..

--
Rowdy Mouse Racing - We race for cheese!

I drove some for a couple jobs I had and after experiencing enough
idiots
cutting in front of me and hearing about truckers dying or ending up
seriously injured rather than running (literally) over a "4 wheeler" I
took
the attitude that if a driver was stupid enough to make it a him/her
or me
situation it was going to be him/her.

Are you one of those truckers who will run up behind a "4 wheeler" and
sit there, tailgating, a foot or two off their bumper, knowing that
you don't have a prayer of stopping if traffic slows suddenly? Or one
of those who switches into the left passing lane going downhill,
knowing full well an uphill is just a few hundred feet ahead, and now
you'll just become a moving roadblock, running beside your brethren
trucker in the right lane, for the next 5 miles, unwilling to speed up
to get by and move back over? Or the trucker that pulls out into a
two lane road with traffic approching, knowing it will take you a mile
or two of struggling just to barely approach the speed limit, all the
while with traffic backing up behind you?

And then you wonder why people seemingly cut in front of you? It's
because of many trucker's bad driving behavior and general lack of
driving courtesy. Besides, if you guys were such great drivers, we
wouldn't have to shut down the interstate on a nearly weekly basis
because some dumb trucker has spilled his load on one of the off-
ramps... you know, the ones that are clearly marked with a sharp turn
sign and a low speed limit.

I believe that 18 wheelers should be limited to interstates only, and
have to off-load their cargo to smaller trucks within a mile or two of
the interstate. That would eliminate the severe damage they inflict
on the secondary roads, and the havoc they inflict on traffic. If
they spill their load, they personally pay for the cleanup. Cause an
accident, lose your commercial license *forever*.

I do appreciate them hauling our cargo. Just don't act like an
asshole and try to kill us while doing it!

Wow, you must live in some weird bizarro world! Truckers here are pretty
good, it's the "4 wheelers" who do everything you just said, rarely
truckers...

--
Rowdy Mouse Racing - We race for cheese!

You have 4 wheelers spilling their loads on off-ramps?

Seriously, we have two "major" ports, Savannah and Charleston, that
puts lots of trucker traffic on the roads around here. And while
there are certainly plenty of cars that exhibit some of the same
behavior, I can get around or avoid a car much easier than an 80 foot
long truck. An idiot in a 40 ton truck is *far* more dangerous than
in a 2 ton car.

Besides, mmc gave us a peek into a trucker's mind... he said he
developed an attitude that instead of trying to avoid an accident he
would just plow right through us in his truck. Nice, huh?
--------
Actually, what I said, or meant to say was that I wasn't going to die by
driving into a bridge abutment, tree line, whatever because someone else
made a stupid mistake. I'd do anything I could short of the above to avoid
making contact with another vehicle, including running off the road or
tipping the truck. I think I'm as important as the dumbass on the cell
phone, reading the paper, drunk or whatever on his commute.
I'm not all truckers. I only speak for myself Jack.

Just realize that truck drivers also talk on their cell phones while
driving their 40 ton vehicles down the road, with the same results as
the 4 wheelers who do the same. I've observed it. The actions you
want to place on the 4 wheeler drives are also done by the 18 wheeler
divers... with much bigger consequences. There is no difference in
the actions of the drivers, except for the real world results incurred
by them.

The 18 wheeler drivers are supposed to be "professionals". I just
want them to act like it, and to be held to that standard.

Now, a bus full of politicians or lawyers and all bets are off!

OK.

Well, my point is with the amount of driving I do, I can't remember the
last time I went by an actual truck "wreck".. I can tell you about
dozens of 4 wheeler crashes I have gone by in the last few months since
the beginning of the race season. When you are at the wheel of that rig
all you think about is how to stop it if some idiot pulls in front of
you... Now, if you want to talk about asshole professional drivers,
garbage trucks around here are like pinballs with corners, trees, cars,
and even houses... And don't even get me started on the Busses that run
from NY and Boston to Foxwoods. Those drivers are definitely the very
worst on the road, beyond any car...

So, how many phone books do you have to sit on to see out the windshield?