JanAndBill
Well-known member
Cruising down I-40 yesterday at 55 in a 55 zone, in the far right truck lane. I was behind a tractor bob-tail, and I could see in front of him there was clear road. On my left was heavy traffic. As we came up to a semi trailer parked on the shoulder, the driver of the bob-tail must have woke up and realized he was there after this trailer, because he locked up his brakes. I saw the smoke from his skidding tires, but it didn't register at first, because he had no working tail lights. By the time it did register, I couldn't go right because of the trailer, and couldn't go left because of traffic. The only thing I could do was stand on my brakes and hold it straight, hoping we didn't jack knife. Fortunately for us, the driver whipped off in front of the trailer about 20' ahead of what was going to be the impact point. It's easy to be swayed into decreasing your following distance, placing your trust in another driver to not do something stupid. It's not so easy to correct when that driver does the unthinkable.