Question about exiting freeway rules - friend's hubby was killed

[sammytko]

A friend of mine recently lost her husband in a truck accident. He drove a rig and hauled salt water for oil rigs.

Anyway he was on his way to home base with a full load on a rainy night about 9PM. When he exited he ran into the back of another rig that was stopped on the exit ramp. There were 3 trucks stopped on the exit ramp. They don't know why the first one stopped. Confused on what to do when he exits?

My friend has to drive this route on her way to work and she gets angry cuz she sees this happening all the time. People stopping when they exit the ramp. They have the right of way in Texas - most of the time. I'm trying to think of where I've seen it differently.

I think in Oklahoma the exit ramp traffic has to stop?

It is just bothering her because she lost the love of her life to a freak accident.

Are rules different in other states? The first trucker was owner/operator for 12 years.

[Callalily]

1. I'm so sorry to hear about your

friends loss, and my heart goes out to her.

I don't really know the "rules", and maybe that's a question for Tobin, but I have seen semi's parked on off ramps many times. My guess is that they need to rest. Not sure about the legalities.

Stay strong for your friend, she needs your support.

[Chan790]

2. Honestly I cannot think of an exit ramp...

in any state/city (DC,MD, No.VA, Philly, NYC or CT) I have lived in that didn't have traffic control (ie. a light or a stop sign) at the bottom. I would assume you would always have to stop at the end of an exit ramp w/o traffic control and am mildly surprised to find out otherwise.

[MajorChode]

3. In Texas there's usually yield signs for the access road traffic

The logic being the exiting traffic shouldn't stop because if it backs up, accidents are more likely due to highway speed traffic encountering stopped vehicles.

[sammytko]

5. There is a light at the intersection, but not at the very point of

exit. The traffic exits the highway and makes its way down to the intersection - about 50 or more yards away. There is usually traffic on the access road heading towards the same intersection. Here they are supposed to yield to traffic coming off the freeway.

This was the question. The first trucker did not continue off the ramp to the intersection - he stopped at the end of the ramp. Everyone else had to come to a screeching halt. My friend's hubby was at the end and couldn't stop in time.

[Chan790]

8. Okay, that makes sense.

I interpreted the bottom of the ramp as being the intersection. Yeah, there is no reason to stop between the top of the ramp and the intersection unless traffic is backing up from the intersection.

[MadMaddie]

7. In WA most if not all of our exit ramps have controlled stop lights.

[tigereye]

4. I've seen all kinds of ramps- light at the end, stop at the end, yield at the

end. Seems risky to have any vehicles stopped for too long at a ramp - esp with the speeds people are often going when they exit.


I am sorry for your friend's loss- that is a shame.

[struggle4progress]

6. Sorry to hear about your friend

Most of the freeway exit ramps I use around my current hometown have Yield signs instructing traffic exiting the freeway to yield to existing city street traffic

People stop in exit ramps for all sorts of stupid reasons. About thirty years ago, I had a construction job where the boss gave a truck driver gas money in the morning, the dumbass driver put a few gallons in the tank and spent the rest of the money on sugar snacks like little donuts, we drove back and forth between several jobs during the day, and then coming home at rush hour the truck engine sputtered and died about halfway down a long busy one lane exit ramp: we were out of gas, and we were effen unpopular with the local traffic for the next hour or so

[alphafemale]

9. An idiot stopping at the bottom of an entrance ramp to a freeway is going to get people killed.

And they're an asshole.

Didn't anyone teach your sorry ass to merge mother-f)cker?

no one in this sorry ass excuse for a Joe Wilson electing state knows how to merge.

And yes I'm bitter about it.

[WinkyDink]

16. What if the traffic ON the highway will not allow such a merger??

[alphafemale]

21. It's not a matter of them ALLOWING you

You. Just. Effing. Do. It.

You think it's going to be easier for you and the 35 cars you just backed up on the ramp and down the road from the light to pull into 75mph traffic from a Dead. Fucking. Stop?

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. It all depends on how the interchange is designed.

With a standard "cloverleaf" there should be no stop signs at all, just yield signs. For the most part, cloverleaf style interchanges are used where two limited access highways cross, so there is no surface street traffic to contend with.

Highway interchanges that allow traffic on and off the highway at its intersection with a surface street come in all kinds of designs but most of the ones I've seen require the traffic exiting the freeway to either stop (in the case of a left turn) or yield (in the case of right turning traffic) to the vehicles traveling from your LEFT to your RIGHT.

Texas has many hundreds of interchanges on its freeway system (Oklahoma has some as well, but not nearly the number Texas does) that exit onto an access road, more so than any other state I've driven in (and I have driven in all of them except Alaska - 20 + years and 1.5 million miles driving 18 wheelers) and there are some where the exiting traffic has to yield and some where the traffic on the access road has to either yield or stop. It is rarely the case that the exiting traffic has to stop in these types of interchanges.

The only possible excuse a driver has for stopping in the traffic lane is if he has broken down and can not move. It is a rare case indeed where no breakdown lane exists.

You have my sincerest condolences for the loss of your friend, but unfortunately, if you rear-end someone, you are at fault. I am sure there are extenuating circumstances in this case - the rain, the fact that he was pulling a liquid load and possibly in an un-baffled or "smooth bore" tank, limited sight distance on the exit ramp, etc. that contributed to the accident, but the fact remains when you hit a vehicle stopped in front of you, you are to blame.

Please, PLEASE don't think I am being heartless or cruel by saying so. ANY loss of life in an accident is most assuredly tragic. This is just over two decades of professional driving experience talking.

[sammytko]

11. Oh no, you make perfect sense

She's just looking for answers as to why that person would have stopped. Maybe he just wasn't paying attention and might have been going too fast for the conditions. I don't think she wants to see this as a possibility.

It was just such a sudden thing. We had just been discussing another accident involving a classmate's wife. She was killed by a trucker trying to avoid a car running a red light. Well he hit the car, killing someone in it and then slid into classmate's wife's car, killing her and injuring her kids. That was the red light running kids fault.

She told me how careful her husband drove and then BAM! - dead not 2 weeks later. Crazy!

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. Confusion or a breakdown that left his truck immobile.

Those would be the only two reasons I can think of for ANY driver, much less an experienced tractor trailer operator to stop on a ramp in such a way as to impede other traffic.

Confusion is a really bad excuse too, in my opinion. I use that term because we have all experienced it - finding ourselves in the position of not knowing if we need to go right or left. What the first driver SHOULD have done if he was indeed confused (or lost, as the case may be - same thing) was carry on to a safe spot and gather his bearings. If he stopped in the middle of an exit ramp to look at his road atlas for instance, he should be horsewhipped. There is NO excuse for such a thing.

As far as a breakdown that leaves him immobile, there are really only a few reasons for that, such as a complete loss of air pressure, thus causing his brakes to lock. Even if his engine was running fine, with all axles locked solid, the truck isn't going anywhere without help. Just as a point of information, modern air brakes on trucks are spring applied and air released, and this is for safety purposes. If you do lose all your air pressure, the truck will stop, instead of becoming a runaway. If his brakes were fine but he had engine problems, he should have at least tried to roll to a stop further to the side of the ramp. There are really very few situations I can imagine where the warning signs of a problem are so short that you don't have a chance to get your truck to the side of the road or at least into a safe position and the number of exit ramps in this country that are so narrow as to prohibit one truck from squeezing by another can be counted on two hands. They just simply aren't designed that way.

I would be very interested in what that guy said to the cops and whether or not he was ticketed. If he was, your friend may have a case against his firm or insurance carrier. It might be a dubious one, but it might be worth trying.

[haele]

13. I got a ticket in Virginia for not stopping and "checking for traffic" at a freeway exit.

California has a yield requirement at the end of freeway exits unless you're exiting into a designated merge lane or access road.

It depends state by state. I'm sorry about your friend's husband.

Haele

[seabeyond]

14. this area in texas, right of way goes to people coming off freeway.

the only thing would be if lights have cars backed up and they cant get off. or if the traffic isnt yielding.

[WinkyDink]

15. Exit rampers have the right of way in Texas?! Glad I don't live there!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

20. Same in parts of Michigan

where there's a service drive alongside the freeway, traffic coming off the freeway usually has the right of way. Traffic on the service drive has to stop or yield.

:hi:

[jobycom]

24. Glad you don't too, if you think that's bad. I'm sitting here stunned by some of this.

I can't imagine how a system would work by requiring people to drop from 70 to nothing in the short distance of an exit ramp on a controlled access highway. :wow:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. Doesn't matter what state you're driving in.

You shouldn't be driving so fast that you can't stop in time if there's someone or something stopped in the road.

[Beaverhausen]

18. yeah, I kind of agree with you

not to sound insensitive, but did the driver of the truck not see the three trucks already stopped?

[hedgehog]

19. Based on the various comments, I can see a trucker from out-of-state

taking an unfamiliar exit on a rainy night and automatically stopping at the end of the exit ramp because that's what he's always done every other place. If you're conditioned to see a stop sign or a yield sign, you'll "see" it even if it isn't there.

[david13]

22. At any time, for any reason, you have to be able to stop if someone

or something stops in front of you, anywhere, or on the exit ramp.
These exit ramps back up onto the freeways all the time. If there is a stop light on the exit ramp, it turns red and 200 cars stop and line up there, out onto the freeway. You have to be careful and not run into the back of them.
Sometimes the whole freeway stops, all lanes, and you just have to stop too.
The problem again is overpopulation. And everyone has a car. And at times they are all out there on the road. The entire system stops and crawls along at a snail's pace.
dc

[AwakeAtLast]

23. I have driven (not a truck) in many states

and I think the exit ramps in Texas are confusing and far too short. As much experience as I have driving in other states did not prepare me for Texas. If this person was not used to them, I could see how disorientation could cause someone to just stop, even at an inappropriate place.

I am so sorry to hear about your friend! Please extend my wishes for comfort and peace to her!

[jobycom]

25. I drive a lot in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi. Sometimes Alabama and Florida.

I'm not a trucker, I just have family in Mississippi so I drive that route a lot. Plus, I love to drive.

I've never, that I can recall, seen an interstate or controlled exit ramp that required you to stop at the end of the ramp. I have seen some ramps out of the cities that end at lights rather quickly, and three trucks stopped at a light could back up onto an exit ramp at times. And of course there are those suicide exits, where you exit onto a two-way traffic access road, where the oncoming car is required to stop. I know I've almost stopped coming off a ramp when I wasn't sure the oncoming car knew what to do.

I'm assuming you mean they were all actually still driving, and not pulled onto the shoulders to sleep. That's a pretty common practice late at night around here--not usually by nine, though. I can imagine a trucker pulling off, trying to get off onto the shoulder to rest a few hours, and blocking traffic that way. He would not be likely to explain the situation if that were the case, since stopping in the middle of the road without a legitimate reason would probably make him liable.

Where was this, what highway and intersection?

And condolences. No one should die at their work. That's too sad.

[mnhtnbb]

26. I can't think of an exit ramp around here that DOESN'T have a stop sign at the bottom.

There may be a few that merge into a one way street, but usually there's a yield
sign for the traffic coming off the freeway.

On edit: This is NC -- Triangle area.

[distantearlywarning]

27. They do that here in Pittsburgh, and shouldn't, IMO!

I'm with your friend - it's extremely unsafe to stop on exit or entrance ramps.