Sorry guys but my experience yesterday proved to me that there is little place in a truck for brats on the road.
I was going down I-8 last night on my way to deliver in Phoenix and here comes this truck catching up behind me. He goes to pass me and as he gets right next to me I see this kid jump up out of the passenger seat, I just knew what was going to happen next, I slam on my brakes to let him get past me, the next thing I know the truck makes a sharp right off the road while locking up his brakes – make a big mess in the desert and coming to a complete stop in a cloud of sand. I pull over and the driver gets out of his truck and walks over to me. When he gets to my truck, I ask him what happened and here is what he tells me “my kid got up out of his seat and he lost his balance and grab the steering wheel and he is all shook up because I had to stop and he fell on the floor, I think he got scared†I told him his kid should get his a** whipped for that stunt and his response was he can’t spank his kid for that, he lost his balance and that was not his fault.
Now this is the second time something like this has happened to me yesterday, the first was with a pair U haul trucks going down the road and passed me. As the second one pass me, the driver almost ran me completely off the road. I caught up to both trucks at the truck stop and asked the couple while they were in line in front of me why they tried to kill me – I got a really dumb look on their face until I told them I was the one they ran off the road. I found out that the second one was being driven by the woman who had her toddler and three year old in the truck with her and the three year old dropped his bottle and she reached down to pick it up - no apology for what happened, no “hope you are alrightâ€, no nothing. She and her dumb a** husband just stood there without a clue when I said that she should have left the thing on the floor and let the kid suffer, it was better than killing someone.
I can understand an occasional trip, like taking one kid with you or your wife and one kid, but I also think that this entire idea of making trucking a family affair is BS and having kids not buckled in, in car seats or more than two should be a concern for all on the road. To me professionalism is a life style of seriousness and concern for everyone involved. In the case of the first example, I think that this guy is no where near what a professional driver should act like, the latter example is the reason we have lobotomies and sterilization – those people should not be allowed to breed.
I do agree with Dreamer though, establish the rules first but if you can’t control your kids don’t bring them because the life you take because of something stupid that happens in the cab may be mine.