Drivers need to pay attention to roadway

I am writing in reference to Mr. Brisboy's comments in the newspaper on Sunday, July 30 about "macho" truck drivers who use their jake brakes unnecessarily. I am a truck driver who drives Highway 95 from Sandpoint to Post Falls five days a week, making two round-trips each day.

Again, today as I was heading south across the Long Bridge (driving the speed limit with my headlights on), pulling 100,000-plus pounds, a young lady on a cell phone begins to pull out in front of me from Lakeshore Drive. Believe me, I am thankful for my air brakes and compression brakes and blaring horn, for if it weren't for that she would have been another Highway 95 fatality!

You would not believe how many times this happens to me per week — along with all those other truck drivers out there. It is unfortunate the number of vehicles who pull out in front of me and expect me to stop of slow down quickly. This happens on a daily basis.

What are people thinking? We cannot stop as quickly as a passenger car can on the highway. We are much like a freight train driving down the road except we don't have the cross arms to stop you.

Just be thankful you are capable of hearing these occasional annoying sounds.

Yes, I agree — silence is golden — but not if you are dead.

PAUL HART

Sandpoint