When driving on the highway, we always like to give semi-trucks plenty of space. After all, they weigh around 80,000 lbs. with a fully laden trailer, depending of course on what they’re hauling. Plus, semis have huge blind spots, stop slowly, and can’t maneuver tightly. But that doesn’t stop one driver from sideswiping one as the semi-truck driver pulls off an impossible save you have to see to believe.
A teenager has been accused of causing a fatal semi-truck crash.
How this person doesn’t see a huge commercial truck as they shoot from the left lane, across the center, and into the right lane in a single move is just beyond us. A tractor-trailer is impossible to miss if you look at all, so maybe this person just tugged on their steering wheel and didn’t even glance over.
Thankfully for them the truck driver was paying attention. As the passenger car makes contact with the side of the semi’s cab, the commercial driver swerves onto the shoulder to lessen the impact. Should the semi driver just let the little car wreck out? Surely the big rig would’ve won in that collision.
Instead, the semi driver pulls over on the shoulder, but the sudden movement swings the trailer so its wheels are on the soft, wet grass. The result is the cab keeps going straight but the trailer stays sideways.
Most drivers couldn’t have pulled their fat out of the fire and would’ve wrecked out, possibly fatally. Instead, this driver keeps their cool as sparks fly out from the trailer, getting everything straightened out before pulling onto the shoulder and bringing the truck to a full stop.
Now that takes some skill and ice in the veins.
What’s also interesting about this sideswiping is that once the one car makes contact with the semi and it veers onto the shoulder, a pickup truck comes in right behind the car. Why the pickup driver didn’t give any space when there’s contact between the two vehicles and the semi might have swerved back into the lane, causing yet another accident, is just beyond us.
Another thing to notice: there was another semi in the center lane, with a red cab, which the car cut right in front of. So the one car driver could’ve caused two commercial trucks to crash all because they didn’t look or didn’t care, cutting across the traffic lanes in one sharp, reckless transition.
Image via Traffic Cam Watch/YouTube