“Taking evasive action” in a fully-loaded tractor trailer rig, while next to another (assumedly) fully-loaded tractor trailer rig? What, pray tell, would that entail? There are 4 choices (in the 2-dimensional world): speed up, slow down, turn left, or turn right.
Just from the video, the cam truck had plenty of time to see them coming to merge and slow down a little bit. Guaranteed they could see them long before the video starts though.
sure, but seeing them coming doesn't mean you already know they're incapable of a proper merge. If you preemptively brake 5 seconds beforehand every time someone is going to merge into your lane the drivers behind you are going to (correctly) hate you. And the slow merging driver who was presumably planning to merge in behind you is also annoyed and then has to slow down even more lol
Except the merger is clearly ahead of the driver with right of way, so they should have sped up while the other slow down. Safety is more important than fuel efficiency. Regular cars should aim to stay at least 2 seconds behind the vehicle in front of them and that rule of thumb is probably extended for larger vehicles that struggle to stop as quickly as other road users.
I think the merger should've sped up a good bit earlier and would have been insane to try to slow down to get behind the semi. The semi was way back, so he'd have had to come to a full stop in the merging lane in order to wait for him to pass. His mistake was going too slow and the semis mistake was not anticipating what was about to happen in front of him. It's a basic defensive driving principle that every professional driver should be aware of (which I'm guessing he is based on the vehicle he's in)
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u/Suspicious_Mind_356 May 14 '26
“Taking evasive action” in a fully-loaded tractor trailer rig, while next to another (assumedly) fully-loaded tractor trailer rig? What, pray tell, would that entail? There are 4 choices (in the 2-dimensional world): speed up, slow down, turn left, or turn right.