Can we really be sure that our machines don’t have their own drives and unfulfilled desires? In a strange parody of the typical truck accident, a big rig trailer suspended itself vertically against an overhead highway sign, leaving the tractor to follow its ground-hugging course alone. Did the trailer have a yen to fly those clear, blue Texas skies? Had it been pining to join its winged metal brethren passing overhead while it followed beneath on endless miles of highway? Perhaps we’ll never know.
What we do know from the numerous media reports is that the truck’s driver engaged a hydraulic lift while on the highway. The lift hoisted his truck’s trailer skyward. He didn’t notice until the big rig trailer detached itself at the overhead highway sign. Reports say that the driver was unfamiliar with all the truck controls on the inside of his cab, and that he had pressed the wrong button.
We may prefer to anthropomorphize the event and imagine a simple, unassuming trailer that yearns to fly. But the actual heart of the matter is ordinary driver error. The picture-worthy consequences may make it seem more like extraordinary driver error. But our Pasadena truck collision law firm can tell you that it’s really pretty typical. Anyone unfamiliar with a vehicle can press the wrong button. With passenger car drivers, this common mistake often sets off the panic alarm. In this truck accident, it launched a trailer. Much more spectacular. And much more costly too.
Again, our Pasadena truck collision law firm reiterates: drivers, know your vehicles. Learn your controls. Traffic has enough snarls. We don’t need immense big rig trailers separating themselves from their wheels along our highways. If a truck’s parts feel the need to engage in a domestic dispute, they should confine it to the lot and sort it out amongst themselves, not take the conflict out onto our Texas highways. There is such a thing as decorum, after all….