An Open Letter To Work Truck Drivers In Midland Odessa

I'm not sure what to make of the situation. Either the folks driving these trucks are worried about being late for something because they're being clocked by some oil company so their in a hurry and careless; they don't own the truck and it's a company vehicle and they don't care if they wreck it because it's insured by a big Corporation; maybe they're just naturally road ragers and drive the way they do out of anger. I'm still in the process of figuring out what drives THEM to drive this way all around us on the roads here in the Basin.

I can share some examples in the short 22 months I've lived here and the funny part is that I moved here from Chicago, where people drive around like idiots all the time. I learned to drive there, as that's where I grew up so I'm no stranger to defensive driving. But this isn't defensive driving from these folks driving these work trucks--it's OFFENSIVE driving! First example would be driving down 191 prior to the road construction on the ramps going on now. I was driving in Midland, headed to Loop 250 from getting on at 1788-and I was in the right lane going about 78 MPH (the speed limit on that road is 75). As I approach the 158 exit ramp, a work truck suddenly decides he needs to exit there and drifts quickly over into my lane. Had I not slammed on my brakes he would have taken off the front end of my car. I laid on the horn, but he didn't care.

The second example (and there are many more in between but this just happened TODAY. Driving home at lunch and after exiting Loop 250, again in Midland, and turning left onto Big Spring Street and up ahead I could see the right lane in front of the newly constructed Funeral Home was closed as some workers are working on the curb there. So I put my signal on to get over into the left lane, and out of nowhere there's another one of these white work trucks surgically attached to my bumper! I didn't cut him off, there was other traffic ahead of me so even if he had gotten past me in line for that lane, he'd have had more vehicles in front of him. So basically going nowhere fast. Just don't understand the complete carelessness and recklessness when you're driving a vehicle that's much heavier than a passenger car or crossover SUV that could really cause serious damage and injury in an accident, why you would handle it that way.

Are these companies not training people correctly? Are they not held accountable if they're in an accident because it's so hard to find workers these days, since no one wants to work anymore? I don't know. But if you figure it out, could you please share with the rest of the class?