Quote:
Originally Posted by Oracle
But... Several years back during the Rodney King riots in LA a trapped truck driver was pulled from his rig and severely beaten including a concrete block to his head as he lay on the road.
Not a good situation at all.
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Darned near 30 years ago now. Several lessons there, by the way: vehicle doors should never be unlocked except to pass through them, and frankly, with darned few exceptions this is true of all doors. Any trucking company that does not have that as a rigid policy is stupid, for many reasons.
When I drove OTR, I had someone in a real sketchy area act like they were going to step in front of me. The first thought I had was of Reginald Denny and the brick (wielded by a banger whose street name is now "Little Football" - last I knew he lives in Spokane). It was not going to happen to me. 3 upshifts and the related smoke and he moved. I had the right of weigh. A car is not that big, but beats hell out of a firearm in the force delivered.
You also need to know your path, and avoid anything even close to unknown, let alone sketchy. If you don't absolutely know it is a low risk area, it is high risk. This is especially true with the riots in some cities. If you turn a corner and see something bad, smoke your tires getting out of there with every bit of alacrity of which you are capable. Turn around if you can, back away if you have to.