Hungry Seagull
member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2009
- Messages
- 2,167
In my life I have gone into places where my own life was forfiet. Yes I was scared for it and wondered if I will live to see the sunrise or even better see home and family/friends again. Kinds of puts everything into priorities. Trucking was dangerous and going into the markets in the big cities even more so among other places.
Fear is a human emotion. To me Fear is same as happy, angry, sad etc.
What I hate about fear itself is it's ability to destroy the ability of your mind to issue precise commands to the rest of the body and make it work while in control of a very large, massive and heavy vehicle requiring you to stay several steps ahead of it. Sort of like flying a small plane (Or a big one ..) you need to be where you are headed mentally.
If you give into fear, freeze or get so chilly as to shiver and not function properly then you are lost.
If you allow it, that fear WILL generate panic and that is what will get you killed.
Once I had my trailer get away from me coming up on a intersection in Gettysburg. The reason for it is simple. A car cut me off and stopped where I needed to stop. I did not have any extra room to stop before hitting stupid car.
I applied more reduction (More braking ...) to the truck's system and the tractor broke loose and jack knifed on me. The very worst case scenario pounded into you at trucking school.
Instantly I felt as if I was plunged into sub zero water and all I could see in that mirrior is the big trailer coming round to kill me and the whole rig smashing the car and through the interstection.
Scared to death.. certainly.
But the training kicked in right about when I lost grip with the pavement. My hands manuvered the steering wheel back and forth very violently while my eyeball was attached to my tractor's rear wheels to get the angle straight and the other eye measuring the rapidly loss in space prior to a certain rear end collision and measuring the remaining speed that needs to be zeroed prior to that.
I felt a sense of disconnect, a peace. Everything was not about me anymore it's about momentum, traction, speed, and all things related to a moving object according to the laws of physics.
I got the trailer back and I was able to stop prior to the light and the car. I used both lanes, all the right shoulder and rubbed the middle divider a time or two and left much rubber skid marks all over that concrete for a few hundred feet.
To this day I cannot tell you how I got it back. All I can say is you gotta keep the angle between truck and trailer less than 15 degress from a straight line. Anything sharper means you are going to wreck and there isnt anything you can do about it anymore.
Fear? Certainly. But you keep functioning. Work through it. Ignore or supress it until the problem is over.
Yes I tend to puke and shake for days after a problem but... always, always get back into that saddle.
Big dogs get to run, the cowardly little pups stay on the porch.
Oh by the way, many years later that trailer was to get away from me again, but this time ABS was availible and assisted me in saving some lives in the Bronx Expressway in rain when a carload of 4 stalled in front of me at 50 mph. The whole rig buzzed but stopped in a perfect straight line with textbook ABS system stop.
If I was driving an older rig I would be jailed for manslaughter on 4 counts.
Technology reduces and minimizes the impact, but it is not everything.
And yes I was feeling fear during the stop. Sir Issac Newton and his Laws are very unforgiving when life/death is at stake.
And pizza delivery in bad neighborhoods?
Been there done that. Always gave those pies and the pay/company tip match to the new hire who was doing the gotta pee dance when wanting to get out there and make some money.
Newbie comes back saying I aint delivering there again I quit.
Oh well. We can always hire someone else.
Fear is a human emotion. To me Fear is same as happy, angry, sad etc.
What I hate about fear itself is it's ability to destroy the ability of your mind to issue precise commands to the rest of the body and make it work while in control of a very large, massive and heavy vehicle requiring you to stay several steps ahead of it. Sort of like flying a small plane (Or a big one ..) you need to be where you are headed mentally.
If you give into fear, freeze or get so chilly as to shiver and not function properly then you are lost.
If you allow it, that fear WILL generate panic and that is what will get you killed.
Once I had my trailer get away from me coming up on a intersection in Gettysburg. The reason for it is simple. A car cut me off and stopped where I needed to stop. I did not have any extra room to stop before hitting stupid car.
I applied more reduction (More braking ...) to the truck's system and the tractor broke loose and jack knifed on me. The very worst case scenario pounded into you at trucking school.
Instantly I felt as if I was plunged into sub zero water and all I could see in that mirrior is the big trailer coming round to kill me and the whole rig smashing the car and through the interstection.
Scared to death.. certainly.
But the training kicked in right about when I lost grip with the pavement. My hands manuvered the steering wheel back and forth very violently while my eyeball was attached to my tractor's rear wheels to get the angle straight and the other eye measuring the rapidly loss in space prior to a certain rear end collision and measuring the remaining speed that needs to be zeroed prior to that.
I felt a sense of disconnect, a peace. Everything was not about me anymore it's about momentum, traction, speed, and all things related to a moving object according to the laws of physics.
I got the trailer back and I was able to stop prior to the light and the car. I used both lanes, all the right shoulder and rubbed the middle divider a time or two and left much rubber skid marks all over that concrete for a few hundred feet.
To this day I cannot tell you how I got it back. All I can say is you gotta keep the angle between truck and trailer less than 15 degress from a straight line. Anything sharper means you are going to wreck and there isnt anything you can do about it anymore.
Fear? Certainly. But you keep functioning. Work through it. Ignore or supress it until the problem is over.
Yes I tend to puke and shake for days after a problem but... always, always get back into that saddle.
Big dogs get to run, the cowardly little pups stay on the porch.
Oh by the way, many years later that trailer was to get away from me again, but this time ABS was availible and assisted me in saving some lives in the Bronx Expressway in rain when a carload of 4 stalled in front of me at 50 mph. The whole rig buzzed but stopped in a perfect straight line with textbook ABS system stop.
If I was driving an older rig I would be jailed for manslaughter on 4 counts.
Technology reduces and minimizes the impact, but it is not everything.
And yes I was feeling fear during the stop. Sir Issac Newton and his Laws are very unforgiving when life/death is at stake.
And pizza delivery in bad neighborhoods?
Been there done that. Always gave those pies and the pay/company tip match to the new hire who was doing the gotta pee dance when wanting to get out there and make some money.
Newbie comes back saying I aint delivering there again I quit.
Oh well. We can always hire someone else.
