Major accident with my RV

[BonS]

Check this thread about my 4-camera "dash cam" surveillance camera system with full time recording and a birds eye view all around. http://www.irv2.com/forums/f84/owley...em-383086.html

[okcnewbie]

Originally Posted by timjet

After several close calls I always move over expecting the driver will not adjust speed to merge legally. If I can't move over I slow to allow the car to merge ahead of me. .....

On 3 lane highways I can certainly understand why MH drivers prefer the center lane. On two lane highways driving in the left lane when it's busy creates it's own issues IMO.
There is nothing you can do to prevent the bad drivers from causing a near miss situation. A certain number of drivers just can't merge properly no matter what. In a MH slowing is probably always the best option but a "speed racer" ( cartoon from my youth ) option that gently cuts the car in half and places the inept driver on the side of the road unhurt but stranded would be nice.

[Ret.LEO]

Originally Posted by Oldman5145

Don't be distracted by all those cameras! They may be nice for later viewing, but you need to watch the road!

X2

100% agree. Too many distractions rather they were designed to help or not gets your attention away from where it belongs...........Road, Mirrors, Guages

[Cloud Dancer]

Whenever I find myself in this situation (potentially), I do the standard "profiling" of the drivers on the get-on ramp. Then, I quickly speed up to a speed higher than they will achieve at the merge point. If the first one speeds up to attempt to "beat" me, I slow up and let him go ahead of me (if he is sure enough faster)..... The next one has a choice, to crash me on the side, crash my toad, OR to fall in behind me. So far, no crashes.

[Nadge]

Originally Posted by cinergi

First off, everyone is OK. I personally barely felt the impacts but her car tells a very different story. She's fortunate to have walked away.

I was traveling from Freightliner (Five Star Fire) in CT - picking it up from having it serviced over the last 2.5 weeks - to Diamond RV for house service. That route is about an hour, almost entirely on 91N (generally 3 lane 65 MPH Interstate).

10 minutes into my trip, while traveling in the slow lane, I found myself next to a few cars from an onramp. This onramp shared the same lane as an offramp. It is very long. I watched the two cars the entire team ... the first one sped up and merged ahead. The other just plain didn't see me and cut into my lane (with SO MUCH room ahead to merge - there was no rush). At that point, 1/4 of her car was ahead of me. So the result was her hitting my right front bumper, which caused her car to go perpendicular to me and then I proceeded to t-bone/drag her for a very short while, and then she exited on my left, hitting the left bumper. That sent her into a spin. She spun off to the left and rear and during the spin, hit the wet bay and then hit the Wrangler I was towing. She stopped in the middle of the highway (the picture is after some folks pushed her to the left side breakdown lane).

The front bumper fared remarkably well. The wet bay door and Jeep door, not so much. Some debris from the accident pierced the inside of the wet bay (no pictures) and shredded the Jeep tire. Both vehicles were drivable (after replacing the Jeep tire .... and of course I didn't have the spare with me ... 2 hours away from home).

I proceeded to drive the RV to Diamond and added accident repair to the list. The jeep I picked up the next day (drove it home - no issues) and a few days later dropped it off at a body shop.

I felt the initial impact of course, and felt the other two impacts (including the Jeep). But I barely felt it. It reinforces my decision to drive a Class A.

The side impact to the Jeep was so severe that it ripped up the baseplate. That caused the breakaway cable to tear due to how I routed and secured it, which caused the Jeep's brakes to jam on hard. Not what I wanted under these circumstances. I'll be evaluating the cabling on re-install to think through making sure that the breakway is triggered only when there's truly a breakaway condition.

Photos in next post in a few minutes.

Absolutely agree, I have seen too many times, vehicles entering into high speed highway traffic from on ramps and absolutely don't know how to "MERGE".

Too many near misses for me to continue to travel in right hand lane when on ramp appears.

In NJ the law is, when not passing a vehicle, keep to the right or risk ticketing.

I now prefer to travel in the middle lane of three lane highways and maintain posted speed limits when multiple on ramps coming up. I especially prefer the center lanes when night driving in NJ due to the abundance of deer foraging on grass alongside the slow and fast lanes with unexpected darting onto highway lanes when spooked.

If an officer wishes to ticket me for failing to keep to the right, so be it.

[bldrbob]

Had a neighbor that would put on his turn signal and set his cruise control and not even look in his mirror.

[timjet]

Originally Posted by Nadge

Absolutely agree, I have seen too many times, vehicles entering into high speed highway traffic from on ramps and absolutely don't know how to "MERGE".

Too many near misses for me to continue to travel in right hand lane when on ramp appears.

In NJ the law is, when not passing a vehicle, keep to the right or risk ticketing.

I now prefer to travel in the middle lane of three lane highways and maintain posted speed limits when multiple on ramps coming up. I especially prefer the center lanes when night driving in NJ due to the abundance of deer foraging on grass alongside the slow and fast lanes with unexpected darting onto highway lanes when spooked.

If an officer wishes to ticket me for failing to keep to the right, so be it.

It's exactly what I do. Too many uninformed, distracted, or head up and locked people to risk an accident. I too will take the ticket.

[gsh-DP]

I drive public transportation, 40 foot bus, like our rigs people don’t seem to be able to see 40’ monsters on the road (many distracted by their cellphones)

Just yesterday I had 3 near misses on merging situations

And one of the worst maneuvers dumb-arses makes is a high speed pass just to merge in front of you to make a right turn —- a huge risk to save a couple of seconds.

[96 Wideglide]

Sometimes the center lane is'nt even safe from mergers
I've had cars merge onto the interstate, blow right thru the right lane, cut in front of me in the center lane by about 6', then straight into the left lane ! No way they knew there was no traffic running along side me, in the left lane.
Usually a rice rocket, with a big fake wing over the trunk!