Roadguy is cleaning out his mailbox in preparation for getting a new computer, and he’s finding all sorts of things he should’ve posted earlier. Below is a dispatch from about a month ago from Dale the Truck Driver. He reports that, over the summer, he spent some time as Dale the Motorcycle Rider:

He also sent along his latest harrowing story from the road. He was in the No. 2 lane on eastbound I-94, approaching Hwy. 280, around 4 a.m. one August day, and he was…

… going to take 280 so I could get to Maplewood.  [It] was the Minnesota Trucking Association’s Driver Appreciation Week. My oldest son, who is 22, was with me.  As I came to the exit, I was in the second-to-left lane, as I should have been to exit, and in the left lane was a side dump tractor trailer full of dirt.  Pretty important hauling going on here.

Roadguy would like to note here that the dirt hauler was in a pretty clearly labeled exit-only lane. But…

He took it on his own to continue east on 94 as I was rounding the ramp.

Not a lot of room for cars here, and if anybody thinks a truck that weighs 80,000 pounds can stop on a dime, I am telling you they don’t. 20 years of driving, and this is by far the stupidest action I have ever seen or been a part of. I still don’t know how I avoided him as he squeaked by. I still don’t know how I kept from rolling over.  By the time I stopped I had no air left in my tanks, and tire smoke was filling up the cab.

I guess when you’re hauling dirt you make your own rules and are probably smarter than the MnDot engineers. What Mr. Rocket Scientist-turned-dirt hauler probably doesn’t realize is the mess I had when I arrived at my destination… You can’t teach common sense.

I’ve heard from readers who have found the No. 2 lane (second from the left) a bit confusing at the 94 east/280 junction, but the lane that Mr. Rocket Scientist was in is indisputably exit-only. I’ve seen drivers be surprised by this, but I’ve never seen anyone cut off a semi to keep going east. Yikes.

You really can’t teach common sense, but Roadguy continues to dream.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 6:05 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.