John Potter
Channel 2 News
Semi trucks tip the scales at 80,000 pounds. At 65mph, they need more than a football field to stop. Cars zipping ahead and cutting truckers off is such a big problem here, that "smokey" himself got in the cab. Tuesday, drivers on I-80 didn't know trooper Stan Smith was right behind them, watching. Armed with a 2-way to call in one of the patrol cars along the highway about anyone cutting him off or making other illegal moves.
Bill McCarty sees it all the time. He's been behind the wheel of a semi for 15 years. His pet peeve? As he told us, "You try to leave yourself braking room, somebody slides in, wanting to make a lane change, or think they're going to get a little farther up the road...it takes your comfort zone out." He wants drivers who share the road with the big guys to remember his blind spots...the "no zones." He wants drivers to "look at the trucks...if they can see the driver in the mirrors, the driver can see them. If they can't see the driver, he can't see you."
This is a serious crackdown, addressing the deadly mix of semi-trucks, and car driver aggression and inattention. And there are the truck drivers themselves. This is a business where time is money, with drivers under constant pressure to meet deadlines. Some have sleep deprivation, all of it adding to an unusually high fatal rate involving semis.
Trooper Chuck Allen has been on patrol for 20 years now. He can recall many such tragedies, like "The large truck that rear-ended a Suburban on I-80 in Sparks about 4 years ago, and killing two people in that Suburban, because the driver of the truck wasn't paying attention that day."
