Truck Information

* A semi truck can be, in total, 75 feet long and 13 and 1/2 feet high. With special permits they can be longer and taller.

* From personal experience, I have had trucks that could reach 112 mph, weight 80,000 lbs or 40 tons. Again, with special permits you can have more.

* It can take an 18-wheeler up to 3 footballs fields to stop if they are fully loaded and going 55 mph. It takes longer to stop empty.

* I average appx. 3,100 miles a week which would be appx. 161,200 miles per year.

National Statistics on Truck Crashes 2005

* Non-fatal crashes, 137,144

* Involved in injury crashes, 59,405, Injuries in those crashes- 89,681

* Tow away crashes, 77,739

* Hazmat or placard crashes, 2,147

In 2003 there were 58,512 total vehicle accidents involved in fatal crashes in the U.S., 4,669 were large trucks involved in fatal accidents.

Most fatal truck accidents occurred in rural areas (68 percent) during the daytime (66 percent) and on weekends (78 percent.)

Texas had the most fatal truck accidents in 2003 with 438.

The trucking industry contributes an estimated 21.4 billion dollars to operate on U.S. roads and highways.

The trucking industry accounts for 12.8 percent of all fuel purchased in the U.S.

Total trucking revenues estimate 255.5 billion dollars yearly, 18 billion more than air transportation.

I've been in a semi since I was 5 years old, truckin' with my dad. I have compiled the top 10 things truck drivers HATE please read this, take it to heart, and give the thumbs up to the man in the big truck when you pass him by!

#10 People that can not drive in bad weather...they will stop in the lane, they won't pull onto the side. If you can't see the road, I sure as hell can't see you sitting there in your mini van!!!!!

#9 Don't assume trucks are slow, some go over 100 miles an hour. Something to remember when you flip them the bird.

#8 Other truck drivers!!! The new breed of truckers have minimal knowledge of the industry, they have less courtesy toward other truckers and even the people that drive cars, and they are generally not the brightest stars in the sky.

#7 Cell phones!! Cell phones!!! Cell Phones!! Drive...don't talk!!

#6 Not getting flashed enough!! ( o ) ( o ) ...make a trucker happy, give the girls some air.

#5 I'm in an intersection going strait...the guy facing me decides his left hand turn has to be completed before I proceed and makes the left hand turn regardless of who has the right of way.

#4 People who drive 50 mph in the FAST lane. Come on now.....

#3 Stupid people, please refer to #10 to #1. Use your judgement, common sense, or please stay home.

#2 People that pass on the right...you realize you are closer to the ditch and....woooooops my trailor just may swing your way.

#1 Top thing that drives me NUTS!!! No Blinkers, am I psychic?? If you don't know which way you're going how am I supposed too???

I would love to hear the things that drive you crazy about truckers, I am willing to change if you are. Thanks for your support!

I was miserable, sick, beat down. I will post the pictures in my gallery, but caution they are disturbing. The care at the hospital was something out a a horror novel. I was never offered a toothbrush, a shower. They really didn't care if I ate. I called non-stop for my pain medication. I was hooked to the wall, on suction, I couldn't get to the bathroom. The urnial was like an ornament beside the bed, full of urine at all times. I was getting injections of blood thinner twice a day, but never had a lab draw to see how thin my blood really was.

The second day I was there my gown and bed became saturated. I had a reaction to the tape holding my chest tube in place. They removed the tape, and with it, all the skin under it.

I talked to my nurse929 at home all the time. She was starting her new job as a Director on January 1st, and here I am in a hospital in Ohio. She would come at any time, I knew that, but we both agreed we would wait until the time was right, when I was ready to go home.

The suction would be on for 1 day, they would clamp the tube for 1 day, and then take an x-ray to see if the lung had stayed inflated. I went through this 2 times, 6 days of waiting and the lung collapsed both times. After the second time, they ordered a CT scan.
The chest tube that was inserted in the ER was done wrong. The lung had inflated too fast and wrapped around the chest tube causing 3 tears in my lung. They had to remove the chest tube and insert a new one, in a different site. I was terrified, I couldn't even face the thought of going through that again. I sobbed like child, I tried to figure out a way out of this nightmare, then, I agreed to the second chest tube.

The procedure went well, I had a young nurse stay by my side through the whole thing. I was hooked to the suction, I was clamped. I called Hertz and rented a car for the next day....I was going home!! The x-ray the next morning showed the lung had collapsed again. I was devasted. I was also leaving, against medical advise, I got up to get my clothes on and fell to the floor. I wasn't going anywhere, and I needed my nurse....now.

I called Joy, she said she would be there as soon as she could. I was on the suction again. Joy has always lived a pretty sheltered existance...coming to Ohio meant she would have to fly to a nearby city, rent a car, and find this hell hole I was in all on her own. So now I'm worried.

Her plane was due to arrive in the early afternoon and by my truck driver estimation she would be at the hospital safe and sound no later than 2:00pm. Two o'clock came, three o'clock came....4....I was beside myself with worry. She walked in...I needed her so much, and I knew she would fix things, but the first thing out of my mouth was "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" She was okay with that...she hugged me, comforted me, she began her work as I knew she would. She washed my hair, and went out took all the supplies she needed, gave me a much needed bath, and started in on the staff...pain medication, dressing changes, things started happening. She had patient services in my room twice a day checking on my needs. She is quite the b**th you know.

My nurse was here, I was going home.....so I thought.

So there I sat, in Ohio waiting to be seen by a Dr. They got me into an examining room in less than 6 hours!! An x-ray was taken. There was my chest cavity, I could see ribs and on the left side the ribs were filled with a lung, the right side, empty, just a fist size circle pushed up into the middle of my chest. Spontaneous Pnuemothorax..my lung popped like a balloon. Most people die instantly, lung pushes against the heart and the curtains close. I had driven a semi for 2 days like this.

All of a sudden the rush was on, people were gathering supplies around me. The Dr. explained to me I would need to have a chest tube put into my side, through my ribs to re-inflate my lung. Didn't sound pleasant. At that point the Dr. asked a nurse for a diagram....the first flag...but in pain, not being able to breathe you are kind of at their mercy. I found out later he was studying a diagram on how he was going to actually perform this procedure, a "How to Insert a Chest Tube for Dummies," if you will.

I had called home to tell my nurse what was going on. I could hear the concern in her voice, and she reassured me and told me that the chest tube procedure was going to be "uncomfortable." This statement would haunt her for the rest of her days.

The Dr. began, he made a small incision in my side then just grabbed the chest tube with both hands and with all his strength went through layers of tissue and cartilage with no anesthesia only a small amount of numbing around the initial incision. I begged him to stop, I screamed in pain and horror. The only way I can describe it would be barbaric. Only later would I know the procedure was not done properly. "Uncomfortable?" she said! WTF!!

I was admitted to the hospital in intensive care, there is more. I didn't get out of Ohio for 14 days. The saga continues...

I am writing this because alznurse929 told me too. I drive a 18- wheeler for a living. I am not fat, perverted, or without manners. I live my life clean and simple. I earn an honest living and my job, at times, prevents me from having a normal life with normal relationships. I have 5 children and have been divorced twice, not really what I wanted to be, but life goes on....

Still, life was fairly normal.... until November of 2004. I began to have pain in my left arm... down my arm and through my shoulder blade, shooting, intense, excrutiating pain. I ignored it, you know I'm wayyy too big and tough to have pain, I'm a truck driver dammit!! There were times I slumped over the wheel and moaned the pain was so bad. I finally saw a Dr. who refered me to a spine specialist after several visits, and a lot of different cool drugs. They did spinal blocks to relieve the pain and finally on August 29th, 2005, the day of hurricane Katrina, I went in for a fusion of the 5th, 6th, and 7th vertebrae. I survived. They went in from the front of my neck to work on the back...odd to me. I had bone grafts which later found out were stolen, by a dentist, from a mortuary in New York somewhere.

My recovery was extremely fast...record setting.. I was back behind the wheel within 3 months after surgery.

I went back to work around Thanksgiving of 2005. Things were tolerable. I was sick of sitting at home, but back on the road I seemed lost. I yearned for the stability of home and the comfort of the people around me. I had a taste of "normal life" and although I was healing, I liked it. I wanted more.

On December 27th, 2005 I was on the east coast, Virginia. I had checked the trailor after loading and hopped off the back. Something I had done a million times in my 20 years of being on a truck. This time I hopped, hit the ground and it felt like a giant hand had grabbed my heart, I couldn't breathe, the pain was like I was going to die. My first thought was that my neck had broken, the spine was severed and I had no control or regulation of breathing heartbeat...I was totally messed up. I called home...alznurse929. Told her I couldn't breathe. She was alarmed but figured I was coming down with something and needed to head home but I had pick-ups to make.

I accomplished my pick-ups and headed home. Keeping in touch with my nurse was a given. As the hours progressed she became more and more alarmed. By the time I arrived in Ohio she was frantic. She had phoned my company and warned them she was going to call state patrol if someone wasn't going to stop me from driving....and she would...she's quite the bi**h. Finally, after major coaxing, alznurse929 got me to pull over. I was transported by ambulance to a small hospital in Ohio.

My lung had collapsed.

I went 2 days, made pick-ups, carried out my job duties with a collapsed right lung. I waited in this small town E.R. for 5 hours sitting in a wheelchair. They took a guy with a toothache before me. I couldn't breathe!
And it hurt like hell!!

Oh yeah, there's more.......