My original point in sharing this rather harrowing episode was to remind everyone just how quickly things beyond our control can change and lives needlessly lost. It saddens me that the desire to argue in the face of simply stated facts seems to be taking precedence.
While I still believe there was nothing else I could have done to mitigate this disaster {short of giving up all hope and driving my rig off of the highway for a certain rollover} it never should have happened in the first place.
valalla360...A couple of quotes from my previous posts that seem to have been overlooked:
1. “Southbound traffic was fairly heavy as we ascended a long grade.”
2. “Neither the Class A or the moron in the mini van slowed and actually it looked like a death race to see who could get us all killed first.
3. “Yes the mini van was the primary malefactor here but the motorhome by his actions elevated everyones risk when he did not back off. As noted he appeared to be trying to hold off the van from successfully passing him and THAT nearly killed my bride and I.”
You state that you were unclear if the Class A was accelerating or not...then you say he was...lots of speculation.
No, please review #2 and #3.
These were my observations not speculation.
Nope, you have no idea if the minivan driver was impaired or not...just doing something stupid.
I submit doing something stupid while driving reflects serious impairment regardless of the source. Until he failed to back off the motorhome driver had shown no signs of impairment.
Just as easily both could hit the brakes simultaneous as described. The only confusing part is why no one used the other SB lane.
Again see #1 above. Also again I submit that when stupidity of the magnitude of passing over double yellows in heavy traffic occurs the usual “best practices {which require all involved to participate} are off of the table but for the sake of argument if both the motorhome pulling a toad and a mini van both hit their brakes who slows the most? Not much chance their braking could/would be effectively even so a gap would have been created.
I sincerely hope that none of you ever have a similar experience. Obviously it affected me deeply and yes I will strive to "Get over it." Sigh.
Opinions and YMMV.
Be safe out there.
:C
