Nightmare dashcam footage shared by Australian truck drivers

Yeah, some of these look like possible fatalities. But as someone above pointed out, if they’re hit on the left hand side, the passenger and rear seats may be empty. What’s weird though is the way the truck glass doesn’t shatter as safety glass would - it just seems to crack. Anyone know if Australian trucks aren’t required to have safety glass, and if not, why not?

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That’s a great way to put it. I know a few of those people…

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One of my Australian immigrant relatives married an Ocker.
According to my uncle, this man never traded in a car - he bought a new one after wrecking the previous one.
See the caravan accident? That’s what happened to him. He died, months later, as a result of injuries received.
Self driving cars would, on this kind of evidence, avoid an awful lot of those “accidents”.

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Once you start noticing tire skid marks on the freeway, their shape, where they lead, their frequency, it’s hard to stop.

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We have those, they’re called trains, and they’re not very popular. :wink:

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Maybe it’s just the camera lens glass that’s cracking?

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Windshields are laminated glass, not tempered glass, and you wouldn’t want your windshield to be made of tempered glass for obvious reasons: one flying pebble and suddenly you’re looking through a sheet of glass confetti.

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What happened at 2:10? The truck seemed to spin for no reason.

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Loss of traction during a lane change due to the rain would be my guess.

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The passenger car to the truck’s front right hydroplaned out of control.

I think the truck driver’s effort to avoid a collision resulted in the truck spinning out of control also.

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Used to be like that, though. The advice was to punch a hole with your fist so you could see to slow down and stop.

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If I’m on a long night trip in my car or bike I tend to stay behind a truck, that large mass in front of me makes me feel safer… With a safe following distance of course!

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There are loads of Russian and Ukrainian videos showing what happens when truck drivers and others think they can change lanes quickly on ice. They are all enough to put you off the idea of driving East of, say, Berlin.

That was in the days when you could reach the windshield with your hand. I can’t. Also, they were terribly weak and offered almost no protection.

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Yes, and the impact marks that adorn EVERYTHING that is near a roadway.

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Oh, you’re right, thank you. I was thinking of side windows. Teach me not to post at 4am after a long day!

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Until we die, you and I, will be young for-ev-er!

Very inspiring lyrics, but methinks not cause to throw caution to the wind.

I kept thinking “I AM THE NIGHT RIDER!!!”

I was listening to an interview recently with a truck driver that provided some context as to why truck drivers seem so prone to road rage when cut off in traffic. Depending on the speed that a truck is going at, if they have to suddenly hit the brakes to avoid a collision, their tires can be stripped so badly as to no longer be safe to drive on. On large trucks this can be tens of thousands of dollars to replace. For an owner-operator, still paying off their truck, and operating on margins of 5%, that can be the end of their business.

Truck drivers will also often put themselves in danger to save motorists. When a car is on the wrong side of the road heading straight at them (a common problem with backpackers from overseas, travelling on outback roads where they may not see any other traffic for hours at a time to realise they’re on the wrong side) the truck driver will often do everything they can to avoid the car, even if that means going head on into a tree and almost certain death.

It’s little surprise that truck driving is the most hazardous profession in Australia. Even more dangerous than policing, emergency services or the armed forces.

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Take a look at the photos on the walls of outback roadhouses.

“One trailer slipped over the edge of the bridge and dragged the road train after it” is a fairly common theme. The Oz trucking industry is not a safe workplace. They need a real union.

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That second car flying out of the farmyard parking lot… I presume that was some sort of escape whereby he either didn’t want to pay for parking or wanted to leave with a bang. Or, perhaps most logical of all, he just stole the car.