Las Vegas Weekly : - Trucks don't need no stinkin' badges!

As We See It

Trucks don’t need no stinkin’ badges!

Tue, Nov 3, 2009 (2:40 p.m.)

Illustration: Ryan Olbrysh

Forty-three: Fatal accidents involving cars and big rigs in Nevada (2006).

Seventy-nine: Percentage of Nevadans who agree that ticketing drivers of both cars and trucks would make things safer.

So why does the Highway Patrol’s “badge on board” program—in which troopers ride shotgun in selected 18-wheelers and cite drivers who stay in blind spots, don’t allow for wide turns, etc.—focus on the cars?

I would need a freakish number of fingers to count the close calls I’ve had with semis. To be honest, most were the truckers’ fault. Me, I’m just trying to get to work, beetling along in my little Focus. Trucks, though—don’t get me going. Changing lanes as if size equaled right of way? Check. Driving three abreast, going 20 mph below the speed limit? Check. Suddenly swerving in front of me because the truck ahead of this one is going too slow and this guy would rather force me to mash my brakes than gear down himself? Every goddamn day.

So where are the tickets for that crap? (Don’t need more fingers than I have to count the rigs I’ve seen pulled over.) Why don’t we get badges on board so NHP can see this thing from ground level? Yes, semis lugging three trailers at a snail’s pace are an inescapable part of life in a city. I get that. I just can’t muster much sympathy for their plight.

Comment on This Share This Print This

1 Comment So Far

Normally I wouldn't say anything but this has me completely pissed off. While I'm no traffic expert I do spend 6 out of 10 hours a day driving as a tour guide so I'm more then familiar with trucks, cars, accidents and traffic on our roads.

I agree that there are truckers on the road that deserve a ticket and I've watched them cut drivers off and be in lanes driving slower then the rest of traffic, but have you ever heard of SHARE THE ROAD??? They have just as much right to be on the highways as 4 wheelers (that's you Scott Dickensheets) and if it weren't for America's truckers delivering everything from industrial supplies right down to your laptop I'm sure you typed this article on, we wouldn't have food, supplies or home building products. We wouldn't have anything delivered to us.

By the way, those in 4 wheels including many a Focus are the same jerks on the highway that see a truck properly signaling to change lanes and will purposely speed up (usually going OVER the speed limit) to keep him from coming over because they can't share the road and slow down themselves for a few feet to allow a truck to pass. If you say you've never done this, YOUR LYING. How about the 4wheelers that are so damn impatient because THEY didn't leave their houses early enough to allow time to get to work that they would rather crawl up on the right side of a truck who HAS his turn signal on and they think they are smart enough to beat the rig on a right hand turn? I see at least one per week.

Have you also stopped to think that having the NHP on board might just give a few truckers a wake up call about better driving as well because they will be able to discuss traffic situations with a professional that deals with these accidents and drivers?? I didn't think so

Hail to the NHP...I hope they nail the first Focus they see.

MJ Davis

Posted by: mjdavis on 11/9/09 at 2:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)