In the same way there might be people who think seat belt laws are stupid and won’t prevent accidents, that doesn’t change the fact that the seat belts save lives.
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Ridiculous. Of course lowering speed limits and seat belt laws on the whole promote safety. As well as enforcement of the jerks that ignore the laws. It’s not an immediate stop gap. Sadly it takes time. Saying oh well nothing to do won’t work is gross.
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It won’t do anything. No matter how much you think it would, it won’t. Accidents will happen.
You know what will help? Traveling four lengths behind the vehicle in front of you. Give special attention to horse trailers. Paying attention to the road and not being on your phone while driving. AI self driving help (such a Telsa, Honda sense etc) helps a with the auto pilot.
Look at the Autobahn. While the Autobahn has sections without speed limits, fatalities are higher on those sections than on sections with speed limits. However, even without a global speed limit, Germany’s road fatality rate is still lower than in the U.S.
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I live near where this happened. South Carolina is SO FAR behind the times regarding infrastructure. This stretch is two lanes, hilly, and always heavy with tractor trailers and tourists alike. I often get passed like I am standing still even though I am doing 80. I DREAD having to drive horses from Charleston to Tryon.
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Yep. Been through there. Weird flex. Don’t see many horse trailers on the autobahn.
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True…as we don’t seem to be able to enforce this, if people were going slower (again, an enforcement problem), there would be more time to react with perhaps a lower impact. How do you legislate consideration for others???
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This. Just drove home from Kentucky to Ontario and the amount of people on their phones while driving was astounding
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My husband is an Otr Driver and the number of semi drivers he sees daily on their phones is terrifying.
Coupled with those not at all functional in the English language I’m amazed many of them have drivers licenses…
Distracted driving in a car is bad enough but in an 18 wheeler even more so.
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How does it impede a driver if they can’t speak English?
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Doesn’t matter. Accidents will happen no matter what speed.
The signs (stop, yield etc), the warning signs across the highway telling of any hazards going on, License stops where the police ask for your license (this is mainly to weed out drunk drivers), etc
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Just ignore. Trust me. Both
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But fewer accidents happen with lower speed limits. Your personal opinion is not more credible than multiple well-executed research studies on the topic.
And you know what helps reduce distracted driving? Enforcement – which means more police officers on the roads.
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Or the trailer driver cut in front of the semi truck driver and braked. Happens all too often. I have a brother and an uncle who are long haul drivers.
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You do know speaking English is not a requirement to have a driver license, correct?
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Accidents will always happen but there seem to be a great number of them in my area that are caused by speeding and running red lights. Those are avoidable “accidents.” I look both ways before proceeding when the light turns green because so often multiple cars blast right through the red lights.
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That’s how I got t-boned in an intersection I knew had a delay in the green: both lights stayed red for at least a 5-count.
I used this street daily & knew about the wait. Dude blasted through his red, hit my passenger side so hard it pushed my car across the street into a light pole & my hood into a V.
My most hated parts of hauling are:
- The people who cut me off to get in front of the trailer, then slow down
- 4 & 5 lane highways where other drivers seem to think I shouldn’t use any lane except the far right. Or be permitted to pass.
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They can’t communicate with people at pickup and stop locations for starters. They can’t read street signs, they can’t communicate with law enforcement at inspection stations or accidents .
My husband tells me some stories that will make your hair fall
Out. I was with him the other day as he was getting loaded and a driver came up to get his paperwork at the window. He couldn’t even understand where he was supposed to sign to accept the load or how to verify the load.
They have to wear closed toe shoes or boots at loading areas. He walks up in crocs. It took 15 minutes to get him to understand his footwear was not acceptable.
I dont how they get their CDL.
I don’t know how much you know about OTR and commercial trucking but the regulations and laws are insane. It’s scary that they can’t read it or understand it.
Some states, like Arkansas, are requiring that they be functional in English to have a CDL.
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Do you believe you should not be permitted to drive at all, should you decide to tour Europe?
I’ve driven in TONS of countries, not speaking their native tongue, just fine. Even cyrillic alphabet countries.
That said - I do think that there should be a functional grasp on the english language to drive an 18 wheeler. Too much can go wrong, necessitating communication with the average folk. However, the shortage of drivers means that for anything that isn’t hazardous etc, it’s “we need a body” hiring practices.
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I’ll be honest… I’ve had several bad experiences with BL and this is probably it for me with them.
I see them a lot in FL doing questionable manuevers and I’ve had 2 bad experiences with horses showing up injured or without their belongings with no explanation.
I don’t care what language they speak, but I do care when my horse shows up with a gash across her face with no explanation and a different halter (when she had one with a plate with her name on it when she left).
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