'It would have killed me': Truck driver speaks out after close call on P.E.I. highway
Nicole Williams | CBC News | Posted: July 20, 2017 10:00 PM | Last Updated: July 21, 2017
RCMP warning drivers to pass trucks only when it's legal to do so
A New Brunswick-based trucker is warning impatient drivers looking to bypass rigs on the highway to be more careful after a close call on a P.E.I. highway.
Catlin Cavanaugh said he was driving through Kinkora, P.E.I., last week when a car illegally passed him on the highway, cut him off and then slammed on the brakes to do a U-turn when the driver realized they would miss their turn.
"I deal with this on a daily basis, and it's very frustrating," Cavanaugh said.
'They just kept going'
Cavanaugh said he was forced to slam on his brakes, swerve and make an emergency stop, causing his load to shift, break two chains and cause damage to his truck.
Cavanaugh was transporting about 45,000 pounds of steel beams and said if the load had shifted in a different direction, even by a little bit, it could have gone through the cabin of his truck.
"It would have killed me," he said. "I jumped out of the truck and I tried to flag them to pull over and they just drove around [and] kept going."
Cavanaugh added that incidents like this one not only put his life in danger, but cause delivery delays and damage to his equipment.
"Everyone has 'I don't want to be stuck behind a truck' mentality," he said.
Use caution say RCMP
RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Baillie said police see a lot of road incidents like this one, and the blame almost always lies with the driver of the car.
"What motorists … don't know is that for about a 100 kilometres per hour an average car would require about a 100 metres to stop, a loaded tractor trailer could take up as much as 500 metres," Baillie said.
According to Baillie, drivers should always check in their rear view mirror before making sudden stops. He added that if drivers want to pass a truck, they should make sure to do so legally and with enough space between vehicles.
Cavanaugh said since the incident, he's installed a dash camera for insurance purposes for when something like this happens again. But mostly. he said, he just wants to make it home safe.
"I have a little daughter I try and get home to every week."
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