The horn is the least useful thing in preventing accidents.
We like to watch accident videos on YouTube as they are very instructive. In many cases, you see an accident happening and the driver doesn't slow down or try to swerve, but instead honks their horn - as if this will stop a speeding car from running a red light. Lesson learned: You have to expect the other fellow to do stupid things and try to react accordingly.
The other day, we were driving down route 301 in Florida and a big 18-wheeler hauling gravel pulled out in front of us. Too late, I realized he was going to cross the entire road before turning, instead of just turning into the left lane. I braked, I swerved, I honked. I shoulda swerved more and braked more. Turns out, he was nearly deaf, and in the loud environment of the truck cab, my pitiful pickup truck horn didn't even register.
"I didn't even see you!" he said - admitting fault. It was a classic "A-pillar" accident, where the blind spot produced by the A-pillar was matched by my movement.
Fortunately, it seems the damage is not too bad and the trucking company and their insurance company are falling all over themselves to make sure I am made whole. They have already offered to pay for whatever damages and have admitted fault. As the responding trooper put it, "Most people would already be on the phone with one of those billboard lawyers, once they see it is a big trucking company!"
"I'm not most people," I replied.
Quite frankly, these personal injury attorneys are not a good deal - they make money for themselves, while stretching out the "case" for years. Eventually you get paid, often less than what you would have gotten just by settling. And does faking injuries to make money sound like a good idea to you? If so, I don't want to know you. People like that are what is the real cause of the world's problems.
Fortunately, the Escape is made of one giant piece of very thick fiberglass - like a boat hull - and held up well. A few lights got knocked off, and the exhaust tube on the furnace was bent. There were many superficial scratches (and a big rubber mark where his mirror ran down the side) and some deeper scratches as well. I found one "stress crack" which, if you ever owned a boat (or fiberglass RV) realize are a way of life, over time. They can be fixed, and I will take the unit to a dealer when we get back for an estimate. Meanwhile, I stopped at an RV dealer and bought new lights and lenses and some fiberglass polish and you'd be hard pressed to see much damage, unless you look. Even the windows didn't break (hit by the mirror) but I will withhold judgment as they are double-insulated glass with argon inside and it is possible the seal may have broken.
If this had been a "conventional" RV, it likely would have ripped the side off, or if aluminum sided, ran a huge dent all the way down the side. As the mirror hit the end cap, it would have torn the corner piece off, which would end up being a leakfest forever and ever. "Stick-built" trailers generally disintegrate in an accident, leaving little more than a twisted-up frame and small pieces of luan plywood and chunks of aluminum, each no more than a foot square. I've seen it happen.
If it was an Airstream? Tens of thousands of dollars in damage, as each panel would have been dented, and have to be removed and replaced, rebuilding half the trailer. Probably would have totaled the trailer, as the repair costs would have exceeded the resale value.
Fiberglass RVs rock - provided you don't "crack the egg" open, which I saw only once with a Casita that rolled over (the fellow actually repaired it though, and kept using it!).
So, we were lucky, in that our trip was not delayed and the rig destroyed. But it could have merely been a "near miss" if the trucker hadn't decided he needed both the lefthand shoulder, the left lane, and the right lane, to merge. I mean, I get it - when you have a trailer, you have to "swing wide" so the trailer doesn't "cut the corners" - but that doesn't mean going to extremes. He could have merged into the left lane, easily - there was a huge apron.
This streak almost looks like a decorative swoop they put on some RVs. It buffed out with fiberglass polish. Not perfect, of course, but not a huge dent or tear, either.
And if I my reaction times were better, maybe I could have stopped (maybe) or swerved just a few inches more (that's all it would have taken). But it is one thing to watch these videos on YouTube and another to experience them firsthand. Driving defensively really means assuming the other guy will do the exact wrong thing every damn time.
But that also means you should use your turn signals, slow down (and stop) before stop signs (and don't roll them!) so other people can divine your intentions. It also means, the horn is basically useless - particularly when people try to use it to "punish" others' behavior.
Like I said, there are some who would look at this as an opportunity to "cash in" and "make money" from the insurance company. If you feel that way, I don't like you. Go read someone else's blog. Being a dick like that is no way to get ahead in life. People who believe things like that end up unhappy all the time, and bore you for hours about "their case" and how much money they're going to make from it. They are never happy with the settlement.
It just isn't worth it to live like that!
