Newton’s Law states “An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends
to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an
unbalanced force”
I see it every day and it just boggles my mind. Grown men in trucks tailgating other vehicles of all kinds; Trucks, cars, a minivan complete with the husband, wife, and four kids inside, even motorcycles. You all should know better. Shame on you! Guess what that “unbalanced force” talked about in Newton’s law is, if all of a sudden you have to bring that 80,000 pound rig to a stop, or even just to a major slowdown? That’s right, you guessed it. That minivan with the family inside.
How is it that along the way, so many of us have somehow forgotten, or somehow started to take for granted the awesome power of these 40-ton beasts we drive day in and day out. Something that we are supposed to be “professional” in doing? Is being a car length, or even a truck length, from another vehicle, while going 65+ mph considered being professional? Not to me. I consider it quite reckless. The average semi truck is 70 feet long, and requires close to 1,000 feet to come to a stop. Do we really think we can overpower the laws of physics, and come to a stop in a truck length at these speeds?
Consider this. Assume you are going 65mph (about 95 feet per second) and you are a decent distance from the car in front of you. Let’s say three seconds. That means they are about 285 feet in front of you. Let us assume something unexpected happens, like they blow a tire, or someone pulls out in front of them, or there is a wreck in front of them and they slam on their brakes and come to a complete stop. Best case scenario, you are going to push them at least two complete football fields before you come to a stop. And guess what? You’ve just added manslaughter to your record. All because of your lack of patience, road rage, or whatever other reason you had for tailgating. Congratulations.
So please, whatever the reason is- impatience, lack of caring, possibly road rage, we need to slow down and think about what we are doing at all times when behind the wheel, of any vehicle. We need to go back to a time when we were new at driving and it scared the crap out of us to be around other vehicles. How many times have you taken your eyes off the road for just an instant, to get a drink or food, or to look at your truckstop guide, or even just looking at your mirrors, then looked up and said to yourself, “where did that guy come from?”? We need to do our part, as professionals, to keep that 5-8 second following distance. When someone gets in front of you, slow your speed by 2-5mph, and let that following distance increase again. I know its difficult, and it requires great discipline and maturity, but we need to continue driving like we never drove before, taking our time in turns and on on/offramps, keeping good following distance, and being alert to everything around us at all times, or it can completely change our life, and the lives of countless others, in the blink of an eye.
This article, except for the images used, is original material by Antoni Pestka and was published on this 21st day of April, 2008. This article may be reproduced or printed, if and only if it remains in its original state, completely unedited, and no profit is made. This message must remain at the bottom of this article, including this link to the author’s website. http://peachfuzzandreno.wordpress.com
Tags: accident, crash, fatality, physics, semi truck, stopping distance, truck, wreck
