Road rage Peterbilt style.

January 23, 2015 10:14 AM

Do long haul truckers bump small cars when angry? I’ve heard of intimidation with brights at night and tailgating to keep cars out of the fast lane, but is this kind of threat a thing? Also, why didn’t the officer taking my report want to hear the entire story? They wrote it up as a hit & run but were disinterested in details and road rage. I think this guy is dangerous and the deductible for repairs is $500. Do I have recourse beyond the police to get me covered and make sure the driver is at least investigated?

I had a freaky incident with a Peterbilt truck this morning this morning. I was driving Northbound in Denver on the off-ramp from Santa Fe to I-25. The ramp has two lanes that merge left into one lane before finally merging onto the highway. There was heavier than normal stop/go traffic at the bottleneck. When I got there, I signaled left and nosed in in front of big rig semi-truck. I’m usually not in the habit of carelessly cutting off 20,000 lb. trucks in mid-sized sedans. It seems like a bad idea. I’m pretty sure I had an opening and thought he was letting me in and a few seconds later I felt a bump, and then another and looked back to see the grill of the truck filling up my rear windshield. I was bumped several times more (4 or 5x) before he backed way back. It could have been his momentum and being unable to stop, but to bump me that many times? After the second bump or third bump I called 911 and told them that I Thought I was purposefully getting bumped by a truck. I gave the dispatcher the license plate number, I think correctly, but when you think you are being threatened by a vehicle that size, talking with the police and avoiding crashes is a cognitive taxing experience.

We got on the highway and to cruising speed and he passed me on the right and then made an illegal lane change in front of me. I was still speaking with the police and I got an excellent look at a different Nebraska license plate and reported it accurately to the police. He just continued on Northbound.

I had no intention of pulling over to exchange info in this situation and the police understood and told me I did the right thing. The trucker seemed to have no intention of pulling over either.

I filed a hit and run report and the officer that took my report was professional but short and very, “just the facts ma’am” like. He refused my attempt to explain the story in detail beyond his questions. When he gave me a copy of the report I asked if it was important to note that the driver seemed aggressive and his actions intentional. He told me he can’t put that in the report. I would think that they would want to let other cops down the highway know about a potentially dangerous truck driver and/or be able to check for are other complaints.

So how else can I get something done here? I don’t want to shell out money to fix my car, especially if the damage was intentional. I am calling the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in a few minutes to make a report. I did not get a trucking company name as I was fixated on license plates and the plate on the trailer said Nebraska and then I think Federal. I don’t wish this guy any harm and it’s possible that I am to blame, but I do think this incident should be noted and investigated. Who else should I contact?

posted by Che boludo! to Law & Government (13 answers total)

"...and it's possible I'm to blame..."

No matter what you did, there is absolutely no acceptable reason for a truck driver to intentionally rear-end you.
posted by cecic at 10:25 AM on January 23, 2015 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: When I say that I could be to blame, I mean that I could have cut too close and he couldn't stop fast enough, but that is really doubtful. I'm sorry if I was not clear.
posted by Che boludo! at 10:30 AM on January 23, 2015

This might be a "cop thing". I once witnessed a particularly violent mugging, where five or six young men beat another man over the head and literally ripped the wallet out of his pants. I called 911. Two police officers arrived, and I was surprised (and upset) that they showed remarkably little interest in talking to me. I was the only witness, but they basically just blew me off.

Another example: My apartment was burglarized several years ago. Luckily, I wasn't home when it happened. Naturally, I reported the incident to police. The officer who responded told me that these sorts of things happen all the time, and there was very little chance of catching the burglar -- so the officer didn't even want to take a formal report. (I made him take it anyway).
posted by akk2014 at 10:32 AM on January 23, 2015

My best friend drives tanker trucks and has related the difficulty of controlling them. I believe that one or more factors like an inexperienced driver or an overloaded truck or a steep grade could explain why he bumped you. Once. I think five times is too many to be accidental.
posted by Monochrome at 10:39 AM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

When he gave me a copy of the report I asked if it was important to note that the driver seemed aggressive and his actions intentional. He told me he can’t put that in the report.

This is a "just the facts" thing. The officer needs to report what happened, not what you imagine was going through the other driver's head at the time.

I've never been hit by a truck, but I did have a truck intentionally (trust me) force me out of my lane once by moving into my lane in such a way that he'd have hit me if I didn't swerve onto the shoulder. It certainly pissed me off.

Try and console yourself that it's only a $500 bill that you're facing. I have an uncle and a late grandfather who drove big trucks, and between them I think they killed three people in situations like this, running right over small cars that cut them off with no room to stop.
posted by jon1270 at 10:43 AM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Re the insurance deductible: since the police have it recorded as a hit and run, there might not BE a deductible --- insurance may pay for it 100%. Talk to your insurance agent, tell them the police report says hit and run, and SHUT YOUR MOUTH about "some of it might be my fault". And it makes no difference what you *think* the trucker's intentions or thoughts were, that's speculation not fact.
posted by easily confused at 10:59 AM on January 23, 2015 [14 favorites]

Seconding that this incident should be handled through your insurance company. My understanding, which may be out of date, is that the one who rear-ends another vehicle is always at fault, as they weren't allowing sufficient distance to stop. But your insurance company won't care that maybe you were unintentionally rude to the other driver; they'll be interested in compensating themselves for the expenses they accrue for an accident that's the other person's fault.
posted by Gelatin at 11:03 AM on January 23, 2015 [6 favorites]

If you are going to use a trailer plate and a partial/possibly inaccurate tractor plate you will need to be very precise with when and where the incident occurred. Trailers are interchangeable and their movements aren't as accurately tracked as tractors in some circumstances.

It's unlikely that 4-5 bumps was accidental, but you don't give a period of time over which these occurred to its hard to tell. If you were slowing, and the tractor was slowing too it is possible that it couldn't slow as fast as you, hit you, bumped your forwards (as the lighter vehicle) and then caught you up again multiple times during the same stop, but if you were doing a constant speed or accelerating it becomes less likely to be accidental.

But, if you were slowing and these were 5 relatively small bumps similar in severity to someone walking into the back of your car hard, say, then it is possible the trucker didn't even feel them. There is a LOT of mass in a full size loaded rig and they wobble and bounce around all over the place. So he could have been trying to stop and unable to do so without stuttering against your car, or he may have been trying to be a smart arse tailgater and hit you accidentally, or he may have been a proper arsehole and tagging you deliberately.

It's not unheard of for that to be deliberate, but it's not definite that it was from your description.
posted by Brockles at 11:06 AM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Did you, by any chance, get the name of the trucking company from the door of the cab? That's where you will go to get your deductible back. If the truck driver works for a trucking company or a local company, the complaint needs to be lodged there. Most of them have a phone number on the door of the cab. They do care about their reputation with the public, and you will probably get a satisfactory response. It is VERY important to them to not have employees act in this manner.

If, however, he is an independent driver who works for himself, its going to be a little more difficult. He doesn't have a "boss" he answers to, and his insurance company will be looking out for his best interests.
posted by raisingsand at 11:15 AM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Call the police again, get the case#, ask to speak to whoever is following up. File an insurance report even if your deductible is more than the cost because your insurance company can track the license plate #, and *his* insurance company will learn of it. They will not want to insure him.
posted by theora55 at 11:38 AM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

I would advise you to have the mods delete this question (or at the very least anonymize it) so that the insurance company cannot find it and declare you at-fault by your own statement.

Sounds terrifying, honestly, glad you're ok.
posted by Dashy at 1:41 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I could have cut too close and he couldn't stop fast enough
It is very easy to underestimate just how much space a large truck needs to brake, watch this video and note how long it takes to completely stop.
We can't know what happened in your case, but the drivers agression may be due to him feeling that you forced him into a no-win situation.
posted by Lanark at 1:57 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Last year we were pushed into an intersection via a series of hard bumps by an unloaded semi. The driver's story was (apparently, said the officer) that we must have cut in front at the last minute, but the physics simply didn't work for that and in fact we'd all been in line at a red for some time. In any case, the officer was just like yours: we got to tell our story, but he didn't want to hear any theories about the other driver having been impatient or otherwise deliberately hitting us. The officer was definitely planning to make up his own mind from what he actually saw. After all was said and done, the guy was cited with something on the order of failing to maintain control of his vehicle and allowed to drive off. Though it sounds paltry, that may well have lost him his job and, depending on his driving record, maybe even his CDL. Meanwhile, the accident report showed him as having been completely at fault, and his company's insurance company has never once tried to argue otherwise.
posted by teremala at 4:07 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]