Community Forums

Unicorn Driver · 06-17-2018, 07:02 PM

I am glad everyone is ok.

People merging in heavy traffic is one part of driving a 38ft class A that makes me nervous at times.

larrymo · 06-17-2018, 07:05 PM

Just curious, when / how is the decision made to use / not use the air horns to possibly “wake up” a distracted driver?

grindstone01 · 06-17-2018, 07:16 PM

Air horns can be used discretely with just a little bump. They have a bad rap from idiots that do 5 sec blows needlessly or to just scare someone.

AnotherMike · 06-17-2018, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ByeTheWay

You have to drive aggressively defensive. In addition I now use a voice activated Dash Cam from Garmin.

Look on eBay - a good dash camera is under $50. A friend had one and was involved in an accident on the freeway. The other guy didn't realize that there was a camera involved, and was claiming that my friend had changed lanes into him. My friend just said to the judge "let's see what the dash camera shows". He able to prove that the other guy was flat out LYING in court. Judges take a VERY dim view on perjury.

Once my MH is back on the road I plan on getting three - one for the rear window of the RV, the other two for the windshield (i.e they will cover the entire front 180 degrees or a bit more, with some overlap in the middle). Three top quality cameras will cost less than one roadside tire repair.

hohenwald48 · 06-17-2018, 07:20 PM

I'm surprised at the number of people who think it's your responsibility to give way and facilitate their merge onto the freeway. There was even a poster on this forum a few weeks ago who claimed the law requires the person on the freeway to yield to folks coming in from the on ramp. I agree, bring back the PSAs. I guess they would have to embed them in video games or post them to Facebook these days.

Ljwt330 · 06-17-2018, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larrymo

Just curious, when / how is the decision made to use / not use the air horns to possibly “wake up” a distracted driver?

In this case, from the description, the car driver made a sudden, unnecessary, and unexpected swerve into the MH. Plenty of room ahead, plenty of merging lane to use, other car had merged easily. No reason to believe the car would move in to the mh with just the front 1/4 of it clear. If the merging lane was ending soon, use if the air horn would be wise to wake up the driver, along with a mh decel. This one caught everyone by surprise.

grindstone01 · 06-17-2018, 07:22 PM

If there is a yield sign or merge sign present, it's always posted on the on ramp lane.

AITG · 06-17-2018, 07:40 PM

People are getting worse by the year. I try to avoid limited access roads whenever I can. It takes a little longer but we see so much more and don't worry about on ramp idiots.

johnhicks · 06-17-2018, 07:52 PM

Maybe we should think about adding a big steel bumper/cowcatcher.

gvjackson · 06-17-2018, 08:18 PM

Twice yesterday, I was seconds away from a similar fate, within five miles or so of my interstate exit for home. I had an eye on the entering drivers as they came up/down the ramps and never saw them glance for traffic at all. Thankfully, I had the other eye on the next lane and had room to maneuver. Keeping an eye in the rearview mirror, I also saw their reaction when they realized what was coming up a few feet from their doors! As ByTheWay stated, aggressively defensive driving is an essential key to the MH driver. Sorry for your damage.

Superburban · 06-17-2018, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NCC-1701A

I'm glad you are OK. Looks like fairly minor damage to the RV considering what happened.

This is one of my greatest pet peeves...people (that seem to be the majority these days) that come down exit ramps and do not look at all or try to time themselves into the traffic on the freeway. While I've experienced this a lot, whether in the RV or not, the closest we came was when a lady literally came within inches of hitting us in the side as she tried to merge into the traffic lane and apparently could not see a 40' long, 13' high object was right next to her. I could not get over a lane as there was traffic on the other side of me. My wife was looking right down on her and said that suddenly she looked over and had a huge surprise on her face like "OMG...where did that huge RV come from." The lady swerved back fully into the ramp lane and slammed on her brakes.

I have no idea what these people are thinking.

Back about 20 years ago, a public school drivers ed instructor in Pa, Taught the students to go to the end (as in where the lane gets too small to fit in, before you are in the highway lane), and stop, then turn around, and look for a space to accelerate into. After several accidents (as in kids after getting their license), and complaints, the state got the school to remove the teacher. After that, the school had no drivers ed.

Does any high school even have drivers ed any more? I think that was a big blunder removing DE. I think it should be a required class for every high school. Many of the same rules even apply to bicycles, so probably applies to 95% of all high school kids, at some time in their lives.

**NLOVNIT** · 06-17-2018, 08:28 PM

I'm glad you're ok & that the damage is repairable.

We've had so many close calls like these, we've had a dash cam for years & when motoring through an area with on/off ramps, we move over 1 lane to the left if there are multiple lanes. Many cities have signs stating THROUGH TRAFFIC KEEP LEFT. So that's what we do.

I just don't trust people on ramps (especially in PA on I-70 where they're unreasonably short) as they never look to see what's coming up in the lane they're about to enter. They putter along & then at the last minute see us & either speed up to dart out barely in front of our bumper or end up running into the berm until we're past them because we couldn't get over due to traffic.

Lori-

Superburban · 06-17-2018, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grindstone01

If there is a yield sign or merge sign present, it's always posted on the on ramp lane.

Back when I was driving Tractor trailers, I was driving around the Baltimore beltway at the beginning of the morning rush hour. It was a construction zone, so the beltway was down to 2 lanes, and the on ramp had very little merge area, with several great big orange signs that said no merge area. I was in the right lane, with several cars in the left lane. I watched as a pickup came down the ramp, waiting for him to speed up, or slow down, or something. He just drove straight into the side of my truck, about the rear of the pass fuel tank, and the rear wheels. The front of the trailer caught his cab, and spun him around. Any way, when the Police officer was getting his side, he kept insisting that I should have slowed down for him. After several back and fourths, with the PO trying to tell him he was wrong, they finally agreed to disagree.

I do not miss driving on the East coast, especially I95.

V3600 · 06-17-2018, 08:37 PM

Sorry, but I don't see a major accident in your photos. All the damage looks to be fairly easy to repair. Out on I-40 today we passed a collision involving two 18-wheelers, a tour bus and a car that was wedged under the rear of one of the trailers with obvious death to the car driver. That's a major accident.