Hello dear steemers,
I am a german motovlogger in Belgium and I'd like to share something with you, which happened between last Christmas and New Year Eve.
As first some general conditions:
My father visited me and we were on the way to the airport to pick up my wife. Indeed I took my car, not my Kawasaki :-)
It's only a 40min drive on the belgian highway to the air port.
It was dark already and the roads were wet.
Like I said, we have been on the highway to pickup my wife from the airport.
The road conditions aren't that good here in Belgium. There are also some contruction areas.
Because of my fathers well-being, I decided to drive calmly. He's had a heart surgery a few months before.
We drove on the left side on the highway, where we only had the opportunity to use two lanes.
The right lane was covered with a few trucks, so I chose the left lane to overtake the trucks.
Of course, I didn't want to go over the speed limit, so I drove the maximum with 120km/h.
This picture shows the belgium highway, but not the area where it happened, because the pictures are too old and it was dark when it happened
In the zone, where I drove on the left side to overtake, is a speed limit of 90km/h, because of some following contruction areas.
So I slowed down to 90km/h. In my backmirror suddenly appeared a single light spot very fastly.
I tought: "What the hell? A motorbike?"
I wasn't able to go to the right lane, because it was still covered with trucks.
The single light which appeared was an UPS truck with a broken light.
That driver has never heard something about security distance.
A few 100meters later, the speed limit was set from 90km/h to 70km/h.
I decided not to slow down to 70km/h, because I wouldn't be able to overtake the trucks anymore. I also didn't want to anger the UPS driver as well.
That UPS driver was still driving on my ass, when I saw the trucks of the right lane were going to another right lane, which just opened.
Now the highway has got 3 lanes and the speed limit is 120km/h.
I switched to the middle lane and speeded up to 120km/h to let the UPS driver pass on the left lane.
I looked in my left mirror to watch him overtake, but his truck seems to be a bit weak to speed up.
I tought "That's not my problem. I drive properly".
A few moments later I saw a new contruction sign appearing on the left side, where the UPS truck drove:
I still drove with the speedlimit on the middle lane. I saw the UPS truck appearing on the left lane, honking at me.
Behind me, nobody was driving, so the truck had plenty of space to go.
Instead of slowing down, the truck nearly drove into the traffic sign and me.
He slammed on his brakes and got behind me blinding me with his high beams.
After the traffic sign, there were 3 lanes available again so the UPS truck was able to overtake me.
I saw him shouting at me, but I ignored him.
I tought: "Ok now he can pass and stop blinding me".
If it would be that easy, hum?
He overtook me and got into my lane and slammed his brakes like hell!
I needed to do an emergency brake not driving into his truck. My father started to feel very uncomfortable. That truck slams his brake again.
I decided to slow down to 90km/h. That was too slow for him and he passed away.
This experience was very bad for my father and I. What did I do wrong? Only because his job is too stressfull, he cannot danger other people.
The best is: On the way back to home, the other side of the highway, I saw one single light apprearing in my backmirror in a 70km/h zone.
I decided to hide on the right lane and let him pass. He drove 140km/h.
What do you think about my behaviour? What do you think about the truckdrivers behaviour as a professional driver?
Dear UPS driver,
I got witnesses and your numberplate. I am still thinking about to report you to your company and to the belgium government.
Thank you for reading,
hellroute