Long-time truckie Niell Graham captured this dashcam footage yesterday, while heading north through Farleigh – just north of Mackay – on the Bruce Highway.
“I just don’t know what goes through some people’s heads to do stupid shit like that in front of heavy vehicles,” he told Big Rigs.
“This driver doesn’t know how close they came to dying – but when you drive the Bruce, you have to always be prepared for people doing stupid shit like that.”
Niell works for Rushways Transport and was driving a Volvo FH16, pulling a B-double loaded with furniture, when the incident happened.
As he explained, “I saw them pull out and I started to brake and leaned on the horn, thinking this could get nasty and that’s when they brake checked me.
“Lucky I was probably only about 50 tonne. If I was loaded with bananas, I would’ve been 64 tonne and it would’ve been a completely different story.”
Niell also shared some advice for motorists who find themselves in a similar situation. “If people are going to be stupid and pull out in front of a truck, then they need to stand on the pedal on the right and accelerate away,” he said.
“Would you rather explain to a cop about why you’re speeding away from a truck – or how you pulled out in front of it, then slowed down and now that’s why you have a truck parked on top of your car?
“Never stand on the brake pedal as basic physics says the heavier the object, the longer it takes to stop! And a truck is a lot heavier than a car. A car will always lose that fight!”
I had a similar situation decades ago, in my early driving career (my wild youth!). I was climbing a long steady drag, and a stream of cars was starting to collect behind me. It was a long straight road; and, there was clearly nothing coming towards us. The guy immediately behind my trailer was slightly over the dotted centre line; but, he just wouldn’t pass me. The other drivers were becoming impatient with him, because he wasn’t allowing them to pull out, and they were tooting their horns at him. I was going pretty slowly; and, there was plenty of hard-shoulder; so, I pulled part-way off the road, and waved him through. But, he still wouldn’t pass. By then, all the other drivers had enough, and they went streaming past him. They all safely over-took me; and, we were then coming close to the top of the hill. So, with my indicators flashing, I started to pull back fully on to the bitumen, and we crested the hill. Well, as soon as we were over the crest, he screamed past me; then, he pulled in front of me and hit his brakes. Being wise to such idiots, I was already prepared to slow down; but, I controlled it well enough to just barely touch his bumper with my bull-bar. He then accelerated away, giving me the two-fingered salute. Not too long after that, I pulled into a road-house to get a drink. Surprise, surprise; there was this dude, waiting for me. He came over to me, spouting all sorts of profanities at me. Well, I wasn’t going to take that. I yelled at him to “shut the f–k-up”, told him he was a damned idiot; and, that I was more than happy to go three-rounds with him, if that’s what he wanted. I was only bluffing (I’m just 5’7″, and only weigh 80kg); but, he turned and ran to his car, and raced off into the distance. A couple of other truckies nearby were just about wetting themselves laughing!