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Old 08-04-2014, 02:21 PM   #21
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Sounds like a ramp that should be avoided. Bottom line is that it is our responsibility to drive / tow our rigs safely and with regard to dangerous or difficult road conditions. Like I said, I tow and speak from a position of personal experience. I am not taking the side of the other folks, just saying we have to do what we have to do to keep our passengers and rigs safe. I approach every trip with the reminder that "bad" drivers and distracted drivers are the rule on the roads rather than the exception. I try to tow and select my routes accordingly. Finally, short of an emergency it is our responsibility to maintain a safe [not too slow] speed while towing. We have all experienced RV's traveling at 45 mph on a 70 mph interstate on a busy holiday weekend. If you can't maintain a minimum speed, then stay off that road.
I absolutely agree 100%. We have to watch out, because it's painfully obvious that other drivers couldn't give a crap about the difficulties of towing a trailer. And I do avoid that entrance ramp whenever possible, but there are others (not quite as bad) that cannot be avoided. There are no frontage roads in this area of the state either, so it's not like you could just putz along on the side until a more favorable ramp became available.

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I have to agree with you on this one...., I've towed through the Dallas area and some of the entrance ramps are "extremely" short, and if traffic won't let you in your forced to the shoulder......, if there is one.

Bob
Luckily, there are pretty good shoulders on most of the ramps I'm dealing with. That one I mentioned is on a bridge, so it's kind of sketchy. I try to avoid it when I can. But driving on the shoulder is no picnic either with all the sloughed off commercial tire tread littering the road!
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Old 08-04-2014, 04:22 PM   #22
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I can't tell you guys how many accidents happen down here in my neck of the woods with drivers smacking in to the rear ends of dump trucks or semis. I suspect driving too fast or other some distraction as culprits.
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Old 08-04-2014, 04:49 PM   #23
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The entrance ramp onto I-70 east from PA-51 south has no merge lane, no yield sign; just a stop sign at I-70. Now, think about an 80,000 pound 18 wheeler pulling out directly into a 55 mph travel lane (that the majority of drivers are running at 65 or higher) from a full stop. Makes our job as RVers seem like a piece of cake performing this same maneuver, but no less dangerous.
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Old 08-04-2014, 05:26 PM   #24
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Hope everyone is gonna be OK. At least someone is going to get a free camper upgrade out of it.
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Old 08-04-2014, 06:45 PM   #25
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Hope everyone is gonna be OK. At least someone is going to get a free camper upgrade out of it.
MI is a no-fault insurance state
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Old 08-04-2014, 07:21 PM   #26
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Hope no one was badly hurt. One thing that would help would be a mandatory Driver's Ed program, instead of learning to drive by video game
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Old 08-04-2014, 07:57 PM   #27
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I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that a cell phone was involved somehow.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this in their state, but in NJ a ton of people are passing at really dangerous speeds on the right side. I'm not talking 70mph passing a 65mph vehicle. I am talking about 90+ mph vehicles passing 65mph vehicles even when the left lane is wide open. Since 95% of the time the cops are set up on the median, these drivers just avoid them by speeding along the right lane, including parts of the highways with heavy merges.
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Old 08-04-2014, 08:11 PM   #28
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Understand the concern, but its your responsibility to get your rig up to minimum speed as you exit the on ramp and merge into traffic. That doesn't mean ???80??? mph but at least 55. I tow a 35' WH and with my 2500HD I am 55' total length. When I merge I respect that I pose a considerable presence and it is my responsibility to time my entrance to do a safe merge. There is no ?? that traffic on the roadway should make a hole so to speak and or move to the left, but we all know that there are numerous butt heads who will try to make it difficult for you.

Just part of RV'ing.
All of the Interstates and highways I driven on had minimum speed limits of 40-45 mph, not 55. Responsibility on the road is a two way street, and there are times you have to assume that the other drivers on the road will be considerate and watchful, and do their part to keep the roads safe. The person that ran their car into the back of the TT were 100% at fault. How in the heck can you miss seeing something that big merging onto the road?
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Old 08-04-2014, 10:40 PM   #29
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All of the Interstates and highways I driven on had minimum speed limits of 40-45 mph, not 55. Responsibility on the road is a two way street, and there are times you have to assume that the other drivers on the road will be considerate and watchful, and do their part to keep the roads safe. The person that ran their car into the back of the TT were 100% at fault. How in the heck can you miss seeing something that big merging onto the road?
My understanding is the driver of the car misjudged the speed of the TV/camper. I do not have the details but it's a 70mph highway so the camper could have been going 55 and the car 75. Both technically legal...
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Old 08-05-2014, 06:39 AM   #30
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How does that work if I'm from Tx and get hit in Mi..
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Old 08-05-2014, 06:58 AM   #31
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.... At least someone is going to get a free camper upgrade out of it.
.
no free camper upgrade. it is going to cost the owner a lot.
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Old 08-05-2014, 07:00 AM   #32
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How does that work if I'm from Tx and get hit in Mi..
No-fault just means that your insurance company pays for your damaged car, not the other guys. If there were 2 Michigan drivers involved in a crash, each drivers insurance company would pay for their respective drivers damaged vehicles...however, the driver of the 'at fault' vehicle can be 'sued' for the amount of the 'not at fault' drivers deductible.

I'm not sure how it works with drivers from different states...most likely the out of state driver could only get his deductible from the Michigan driver and nothing else. I'll ask my agent when I pay my outrageous car insurance this month.

The owner of the travel trailer in the OP would be awarded the insured value of his trailer by his insurance company. If it was insured for enough $$ he could get a trailer upgrade but most likely it was insured for the actual value.
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Old 08-05-2014, 07:24 AM   #33
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After looking at the picture again it appears that the camper was struck whle sitting on the shoulder. Not even moving. Does anyone know.
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Old 08-05-2014, 08:07 AM   #34
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All of the Interstates and highways I driven on had minimum speed limits of 40-45 mph, not 55. Responsibility on the road is a two way street, and there are times you have to assume that the other drivers on the road will be considerate and watchful, and do their part to keep the roads safe. The person that ran their car into the back of the TT were 100% at fault. How in the heck can you miss seeing something that big merging onto the road?
The answer to the ? "HOW", is because they are often distracted or simply not payin attention. That was my point before. Agree that the person who ran their car into the rv was 100% at fault. That said, I believe in Reagan's statement of "trust but verify". But sometimes you just have to be very careful and hope for the best. Experienced this a few years ago when I found myself on I-75 driving thru Atlanta Ga in late afternoon. With what seemed like at aleast 12 lanes, all bumper to bumper full, I felt like a calf in the middle of a stampede. I just got into a middle lane and gave myself as much room ahead as I could to allow for stops or the need to change lanes to follow the interstate south. Fingers were starting to bleed from gripping the wheel. In that case I was praying for sanity by the drivers around me and vowing never to drive thru Atlanta again [and I never have].

Done on this thread.
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Old 08-05-2014, 08:55 AM   #35
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After looking at the picture again it appears that the camper was struck whle sitting on the shoulder. Not even moving. Does anyone know.
It was entering the highway when it was hit and then pulled off the road dragging the car with it.
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Old 08-05-2014, 09:05 AM   #36
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After looking at the picture again it appears that the camper was struck whle sitting on the shoulder. Not even moving. Does anyone know.
Someone posted that the car was wedged under the camper and it drug the car along when they pulled over.
I am curious as to how 2 different people on here came to the conclusion that the driver of the car is 100% at fault while having very few facts of the accident.
I know that typically in a rear end accident, the driver who hit the vehicle in front of them is usually at fault. However, it is also possible that the driver pulling the camper merged rather abruptly and went right into the side of the car.
I agree that the driver of the sedan in this accident was probably at fault, but no way can I say I am 100% certain.
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Old 08-06-2014, 10:38 AM   #37
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I am curious as to how 2 different people on here came to the conclusion that the driver of the car is 100% at fault while having very few facts of the accident.
You can probably thank semi drivers for this. Any time there's a highway accident involving a semi and a passenger vehicle, the semi driver claims that they were driving just fine but it was the reckless actions of the cars around them that caused the accident.
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Old 08-06-2014, 11:01 AM   #38
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I know that typically in a rear end accident, the driver who hit the vehicle in front of them is usually at fault. However, it is also possible that the driver pulling the camper merged rather abruptly and went right into the side of the car.
I agree that the driver of the sedan in this accident was probably at fault, but no way can I say I am 100% certain.
I agree, there's nothing here to be sure who was at fault. But I can tell you that in Texas, in most instances, the officer will write the report that it was the rear-end driver that was at fault.

Example: I was headed home from a college class years ago. It had JUST started raining, and pretty heavily at that. So you know (especially here in Texas after a long period of no rain) the road was slicker than snot. So I'm putzing along in the right lane, traffic stacked up in both lanes, and this old lady pulls out of a driveway in front of me (into the over-sized gap I had left between me and the car that was in front of me instantly eliminating my safety margin), so I apply the brakes pretty hard to keep from sliding into her, and I'm doing okay as she starts to pull away, the distance is shrinking, but as long as she keeps going, I won't hit her. To this point I've managed to avoid wheel lockup (1991 Jeep Wrangler, no ABS). But instead of continuing along, she slams on her brakes and turns into the driveway immediately next to the one she just pulled out of. Completely unpredictable behavior. So I mash the pedal and get wheel lock. Well my Jeep is super light, the roads are super slick, I can't turn or pump brakes or anything, so to keep from breaking my wrists, I let go of the wheel the instant before impact, I knew it was going to happen, no way out, so I prepared for impact the best I could. I hit her and pushed her into another vehicle exiting the driveway she was entering. The officer showed up, diagrammed the scene, and flat out told me that since I rear-ended her, he was going to write the report that I was at fault, "failure to maintain safe following distance". I told him exactly what happened and he said "well, that's too bad, you should have given yourself more space to stop given the conditions"

Complete BS, but I still got the ticket, and my insurance had to pay for everyone's damage because that old bag pulled out in front of me, completely ignoring my right of way and stopped on a wet road; I didn't stand a chance.

Lesson learned: Don't EVER trust another driver to do what you THINK they're going to do; ASSUME (yes, I know) that they're going to stop immediately in front of you as fast as their car will allow them to do so.
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Old 08-06-2014, 11:11 AM   #39
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Wow, that stinks Bob!
I think we tend to side with those that we share something in common with. Being on a Jayco camper forum, then most will automatically side with the camper.

It reminds me of a friend who recently went on an extended trip with their family. There were 4-5 of them pulling campers in their little convoy. They got separated a little and at some point one of the family members was stopped at a red light. The light turned green, he took off and hit the vehicle in front of him in the rear.

They both pulled over and inspected the damage. No damage to the SUV he rear-ended. Very minor damage to the front of the truck. The guy driving the SUV (who was the one that got hit) said no harm, no foul, an apology should take care of it.

The guy pulling the camper that hit the SUV got ticked off about this. Said he didn’t have to apologize because he didn’t do anything wrong. He thought the guy in the SUV should apologize for not accelerating fast enough when the light turned green. My buddy and the rest of the convoy all sided with him and said it was the fault of the SUV.

I told my buddy that going by what he told me, I think the best thing would have been to say I’m sorry and move on. I ask him how he would have reacted if he was the one that was at the light and got hit. His exact words were “I don’t see the other side of it and I don’t want to.”
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Old 08-06-2014, 12:39 PM   #40
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Wow, that stinks Bob!
I think we tend to side with those that we share something in common with. Being on a Jayco camper forum, then most will automatically side with the camper.

It reminds me of a friend who recently went on an extended trip with their family. There were 4-5 of them pulling campers in their little convoy. They got separated a little and at some point one of the family members was stopped at a red light. The light turned green, he took off and hit the vehicle in front of him in the rear.

They both pulled over and inspected the damage. No damage to the SUV he rear-ended. Very minor damage to the front of the truck. The guy driving the SUV (who was the one that got hit) said no harm, no foul, an apology should take care of it.

The guy pulling the camper that hit the SUV got ticked off about this. Said he didn’t have to apologize because he didn’t do anything wrong. He thought the guy in the SUV should apologize for not accelerating fast enough when the light turned green. My buddy and the rest of the convoy all sided with him and said it was the fault of the SUV.

I told my buddy that going by what he told me, I think the best thing would have been to say I’m sorry and move on. I ask him how he would have reacted if he was the one that was at the light and got hit. His exact words were “I don’t see the other side of it and I don’t want to.”
Exactly right. I guess I'm getting old. I would have said "gee, sorry about that buddy!", shake hands and move on, my pride is not big enough for causing a fight about something like that. I think you would have been hard pressed to find a cop that would've written that accident report in favor of your friend. If the person in front of you is not accelerating fast enough, you don't get to push them out of the way, despite the overwhelming desire to do so.
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