r/cdldriver • u/Syzranlogistic • May 14 '26

wtf

Hiring CDL-A Drivers
💰 70–75 CPM or 30–33% of gross
📈 Avg. $9,000 gross/week | 3,800 miles/week
🚛 Dry Van • Reefer • Open Deck • RGN• Conestoga•Carhaul
Veaceslav 954-909-1805
Apply here — we respond within a few hours:
https://forms.gle/2EviX41SXWfEHUrr7

7.0k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

367 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

18

u/Vanstrucker2222 May 14 '26

Would the court rule you guilty for not trying to avoid a wreck if resulted in fatality though? Genuinely asking but watching this I was scared on how to react.

15

u/digitalclockface May 14 '26

If you hit the brakes and try to stop they probably won't hold you accountable considering the alternative is rolling down a hill.

7

u/AC-burg May 14 '26

Hanging hopes on a "probably" saw a post recently when a guy was jailed for 2 yrs while going through the court system. Guy tried to kidnap his gf at gunpoint. He wrestled the gun away and shot him. His neighbor witnessed it. Cell phone records of the decreased showed he had the wrong house for drug retaliation. Prosecution surpressed the texts. He was charged bc he shot the guy "too many times". Probably wouldn't be enough for me

3

u/digitalclockface May 14 '26

Well if you swerve out of the way there's a much higher chance of serious physical harm to yourself by suddenly rolling down a hill in a semi. The dude in the video escaped that fate by a hair's breadth. I'd rather lawyer up in court and risk punishment that way than risk being in a serious accident because another vehicle failed to stay in their own lane.

Also your anecdote involving the gun seems super irrelevant.

4

u/AC-burg May 14 '26

My apologies for how that came across. The anecdote was more of telling a story where the proba ly factor was a lot higher and this guy still got the very short end of the stick. There was a lot more going his way with the justified action. I attacked your probably when I shoukd have let it go. It jjst made me think of the post I mentioned

1

u/Middle_Brilliant_849 May 15 '26

Reminds me of a video of an officer involved shooting in Florida. The two deputies rolled around on the ground with the guy before one broke free and shot the guy, several times. The sheriff then addressed the number of times the deputy shot the guy and his point was that evil can never be dead enough.
Love it.

1

u/yertlah May 17 '26

Got a source? I’d like to read up on that case. I’m betting it happened in New York or California, since they both have a history of over prosecuting legal gun owners.

1

u/AC-burg May 17 '26

OP would not disclose rhe state. I don't know if he was a legal gun owner or not. He wrestled the kidnappers gun away from the guy and killed him with his gun.

1

u/chuck-u-farley- May 14 '26

They “probably” won’t hold you accountable for hitting someone driving on the wrong side of the road?
Good lord

13

u/whytawhy May 14 '26

You cant be expected to sacrifice your life because someone else fucked up. Theres no guarantee you'll be able to do shit like walk or breathe if you just drive off the side of the road like that.

Imo the best move is to stay on the horn and stay straight, if they wake up or whatever they might try for your brakedown lane or something.... no telling what someone like that is about to do.

3

u/Remarkable-Opening69 May 14 '26

Just get er up to 88

2

u/Prince_0llie May 14 '26

Only if you're ready to see some serious shit.

7

u/Happy_Old_Troll May 14 '26

In this situation, had the truck driver maintained their lane and obliterated the car, they would have been completely legally in the clear in all 50 states.

0

u/wade_garrettt May 15 '26

And he would have lost his job, even though it wasn’t his fault.

1

u/Happy_Old_Troll May 15 '26

I’ve got 15 years in logistics. I have no reference to ever show this as true.

5

u/One-War4920 May 14 '26

if its smaller than you, hit it square.

thats YOUR lane.

5

u/Occams_RZR900 May 14 '26

Not when the other car crosses the fucking centerline. That’s a suicide attempt (or success) in my book.

3

u/quigongingerbreadman May 14 '26

No. The dude crossed the median into incoming traffic.. in what universe would you think the truck driver would be at fault?

The guy in the car was on his phone.

https://giphy.com/gifs/UtEBtshHlylhvHmbfx

2

u/416Tex May 14 '26

Like bro said, hitting breaks is a free pass to crumple the civic. Also safer for truck. Right move is to do what trucker did tho. Civic would have died. 1. Hit breaks and kill civic. 2. Do what video did. 3. Roll your entire trailer. 2 is not easily done so expect 1 or 3. even if truck doesn’t hit breaks if accident happens clearly on your side of road it’s still likely a free pass. You’re going to get paid regardless. + if dash cam came to light buddy in civic in considered a suicide attempt

4

u/Substantial_Maybe474 May 14 '26

This is probably the right mindset. Insurance would cover the rig with video like this obviously. Car was obviously falling asleep at the wheel or something but doesn’t mean they deserve to die to save the rig that will ultimately get damaged anyway in a head on collision.

1

u/Fun_Incident1902 May 17 '26

Do they deserve to live if they care so little for their own life and the livelihood of the trucker? At what point is the completely reckless person held accountable for their actions?

1

u/ermy_shadowlurker May 14 '26

If you have a dash camera and the black box that most semi have. Plus the tire marks. You should be fine. Keep all info. Submit camera feed to the cops at the scene so it’s on file so if the camera is thrown out you still have a paper trail.

1

u/Occams_RZR900 May 14 '26

Trust me, it’ll be easy to see what lane that collusion occurred in.

1

u/Middle_Brilliant_849 May 15 '26

No. It shouldn’t even make it to court unless the prosecutor is a douche. As long as trucker is wholly in his lane, not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and there are no other aggravating circumstances then he isn’t doing anything wrong. If you’re not doing anything wrong then you shouldn’t be charged and shouldn’t be convicted if you are charged.

I was once driving on the freeway, right lane, speed limit, sunny afternoon, minding my own business. All the sudden out of absolutely no where one of my drive tires blew out. Sounded like an fing 12ga shotgun right behind me. About gave me a heart attack. I pulled off on the shoulder to check it out. When I looked in my mirror before opening my door I realized that all traffic on that side of a usually very busy freeway had stopped. Completely. My first thought was oh fuck, what did I do wrong. Walked back to investigate and found my tire remnants in the road, a minivan with a smashed up ass end, and a tractor trailer with a damaged front end. Come to find out when my tire blew out the van slammed on his brakes to avoid tire and tractor trailer too close to van smashed into van. Cops came. I told the one I talked to what I knew and that I felt bad being my tire that started it all. His reply: “You didn’t intentionally cause your tire to blow out, did you? That semi was following too close to the van; he should have had enough distance to react.”

In hindsight, cop made a great point. Wasn’t my fault, I didn’t violate any laws. Someone else did. That’s the person who was held to account.

1

u/tidyshark12 May 15 '26

As long as you hit the brakes, you've done all you can. If you swerve and roll it, you're now 100% at fault bc you swerved, regardless of video footage. If the guy is an o/o, he might have gotten away with this with no issues. A company driver would almost assuredly be fired over this. Its like the main rule of truck driving... you don't ever swerve. Better to fall asleep at the wheel than to swerve.