Driver Story Magazine

Going back as little as thirty years in American news history, road rage appeared in news reports less than a handful of times; the term ‘road rage’ wasn’t even created until the late 80s. Road rage is the act of being aggressive or irate while operating a vehicle. By the late 90s, over 4,000 stories of road rage received media coverage yearly. Today, over 13,000 cases of road rage are reported every year, that doesn’t even begin to account for the number of people who decided not to report an incident. Read the rest of this entry »

We all know that driving drunk is not a smart thing to do. In fact, most people that have been known to drive drunk will admit to the foolishness of the act themselves when they are sober. However, alcohol tends to cloud judgment and people who would normally not do foolish things tend to act in an irresponsible manner. This, unfortunately, includes drunk driving. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s only one cure for fatigue – sleep, of course. But, this isn’t about that. I think we all know when it’s time to park it and take a nap. This is about some of the crazy things drivers do, to keep themselves awake, when they start getting sleepy. Every driver has a certain technique that works for him or her. It’s scary and funny to listen to some of them. Read the rest of this entry »

In the past (almost) ten years that I have been writing for 10-4 Magazine, I’ve seen plenty of surveys and reports about aggressive driving and road rage. I recently came across this older report which was, in my opinion, the single best study on road rage ever put together. Still to this day, there has never been anything done that was as extensive or as believable. Read the rest of this entry »

When you know you’re doing something wrong, and you see those dreaded flashing blue lights in your rearview mirror, do you try to think of a good excuse as you slowly pull over, or are you the planning type, who thinks of a good one ahead of time? Do you always tell the truth, or are you the type of driver who counts on instinct to think of something at the last second? Read the rest of this entry »

Did you ever see a crazy driver and wish you could just snatch them out of their car and shake them? I have. Did you ever see another driver do something stupid and then flip you “the bird” as if it were your fault? I have. Do you know one of these drivers and wonder how they survive every day? Me too. Don’t you wish you could do something about it? I sure do.

Well, now you can. No, you can’t punch them in the stomach, because that can get you into trouble, but you can give them this. Read the rest of this entry »

As a longtime trucker myself, I’ve taken some heavy loads down some big hills, or so I thought. Like the very first time I ever went down Cabbage (westbound I-84 heading down into Pendleton, OR). With a gross weight of 80,000 pounds and no Jake Brake, I found myself in great peril, with the bottom of the hill still a long way off. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a big fan of the Second Amendment, and I do carry a gun myself, when I can do so legally.  I have a right-to-carry permit from my home state (Indiana), and my permit is honored in twenty-eight other states.  I did a lot of research on this subject for my own personal knowledge, so I can make sure I stay within the law.  And, I figured there must be a lot of drivers out there who were wondering the same thing.

In fact, I was sitting in a room with about ten other truck drivers a few weeks ago and the subject of carrying a gun came up.  Two of the drivers there admitted they carried a gun in their truck.  I didn’t admit it, even though I had one in my truck, and I wondered if anyone else wasn’t admitting what he had.  Which had me wondering how many drivers really keep a gun with them.  From what I heard that day, I’d guess that three or four out of ten drivers probably pack a gun in their truck (in states where they can do so legally). Read the rest of this entry »