u-turn or not to turn

When I had a local gig I was always seeing a local trucking school making flips at a very busy intersection of a double lane highway. There was a little truckstop there named Fristoes. One day I had to back it down, traffic was moving slow. When I rolled up on scene one of these training trucks had a car up on it's side on the driver door in front of the trailer wheels. Looks as if they had made a U turn in front of a car. I would imagine that the instuctor does not work there anymore.

 

i would highly advise AGAINST making u-turns on any road, especially highway/bi-highway, secondary state routes and such. i would advise you to find another exit, or a shopping mall, or some sort of land space that does not require you to make u-turns.

case in point. about 3 years ago (now, i think) a Smith Transport driver (you know, those black rigs/trailers with the gold lettering?) had made an incredible mistake here in my home state. it was "around" 5 AM and he missed his exit. so instead of going to the NEXT exit, he decides to make his u-turn by using the median and going back to other way.

well, low and behold, he's in the left lane, of a four lane southbound highway, making his illegal u-turn and a 4 wheeler was coming up fast behind him. the 4 wheeler slammed into the rear of the trailer, killing him instantly............

forget about the speed of the 4 wheeler, forget about why the 4 wheeler was in the left lane, forget about ANY reason why that 4 wheeler was there.................

why was the trucker making an illegal u-turn...........was the REAL QUESTION...............

the driver got hauled away, via the state police DOT enforcement officer.

the tractor-trailer rig got hauled away via the tow truck

the 4 wheeler went to the morge via the M.E.'s van.

the trucking company, Smith Transport....................

well, let's just say..................they are wishing they never hired that driver..............


so, you really wanna do a u-turn..................??



this is the company i am refering to.
http://www.smithtransport.com/

 

That is sad, BUT reguardless of what the driver was doing, the 4wheeler failed to pay attention to what was going on. Truck is pretty big, and assuming it was 5am the rig was most likely lit up. Trucker should not have been doing what he was doing, BUT had the car driver been paying attention he would be alive...



K

 

On occasion I will make a U Turn. Each situation is different.

It takes 4 lanes to turn a rig. 4!. And the hangover from your tail may even exceed that a little. So be careful.

But 1st I look for a place to make a D Turn. When you turn, your rig makes the letter D. Backwards D if you turn left, forward D for turning right.

Look for a parking lot of some sort on the left side of the road that you can turn into and then follow through right back out the other direction. Still gotta be 4 lanes big, though.

Making a legal U turn at a stop light is a good choice, I think. You know to be careful, and I put all the flashers on.

 

true (about the sadness), however, it was a "typical" tractor-trailer rig, out fitted the the usual amount of lights. again, forget about the 4 wheeler's driving habits and such, the trucker got nailed big time for his actions. the trucking company is going to lose any court battle on this. u-turns are illegal on highways, as those "turn-arounds" or "cut throughs" are marked "for emergency vehicle use only", and a trucker doesn't qualify as an "emergency vehicle useage" person.

if i can dig up any more info from that acident, i'll post it here, but it was about 3 years ago, so the archives at the local paper would require me to pay a fee.