Dash Cam of the Week: Truckers behaving badly

Sifting through the many truck videos in our quest for each Dash Cam of the Week often leaves us frustrated with what goes on out there: the carelessness of four-wheelers, the dangerous speeders, the risky behavior like brake-checking, the outright road rage.

And we’re just sitting at a desk for few hours, stuck on YouTube, not on the highway. But all day, every day, professional drivers have to put up with this stress. So it’s no wonder truckers might be a little testy by the time they hit the truck stop in the afternoon.

Once again, here’s a case a couple of small mistakes growing into something more serious. Lessons for the day: Get backing assistance if, for some reason, you pull into the fuel lane at a bad angle and decide to reverse out. And, if another trucker backs into you, count to 10 (or 100) to calm yourself before exiting the cab. The dash cam is no longer your friend when you start throwing punches. (We skip ahead a few minutes in launching this video, but start from the beginning to see how challenging access to this fuel island can be when it's crowded.)

And speaking of trailering skills, this week’s bonus clip should serve to remind truck drivers about the hazards of those double left turn lanes, or “pick your poison.”

In this instance, at an arguably poorly designed intersection, the flatbedder cuts the turn too closely and clips a car that seems to be stopped appropriately behind the line at the light. The real mistake, however, is that the trucker doesn’t stop. Maybe he thought he just bumped the curb—that’s his story and he’s sticking to it?