This Dump Truck driver would rather risk crashing into a crash barrier and forcing a car into the breakdown lane over missing an exit.
Presumed Michigan resident and Redditor /u/mycatisnameddemmie posted up dashcam footage from earlier yesterday (Feb 21, 2024) from the 131 in Grand Rapids showing a Miller Pipeline Dump Truck driver forcing his way onto an off-ramp exit, narrowly avoiding a crash barrier and nearly forcing /u/mycatisnameddemmiet into the breakdown lane and into the wall.
Check out his footage below.
Anybody know what company this car drives for? Can only make out an M in a blue circle
byu/mycatisnamedemmie ingrandrapids
In OP’s video, we can see him trying to merge onto the 131 from the Scribner Ave NW on-ramp, a notoriously short on-ramp with an exit ramp less than 900 feet away (1/5th mile.)
As this screenshot of the area shows, whoever designed this on-ramp didn’t leave much space to merge, considering it shares a merge space with drivers also trying to exit.
OP’s merge onto 131 is immediately blocked by a driver in a Miller Pipeline Dump Truck desperately trying to make the 86A exit despite OP right next to him and an increasingly closing gap between his lane and the upcoming exit’s crash barrier.
Other Redditors ID’d the DOT number as 240106 which belongs to Miller Pipeline LLC.
Like some kind of NASCAR driver, the Miller Pipeline driver forces his way into the 86A off-ramp exit, narrowly avoiding the crash barrier attenuator simultaneously forcing OP halfway into the breakdown lane.
“He merged right onto the 131, got alongside me and then turned into me instead of getting over and slowing down a little earlier for the insanely short off-ramp in the city his company is operated in. He also killed the blinker before turning. I initially thought he just needed onto that 131 lane. I guess I need to invest in a cam that films behind, too.
As testament to how bad this off-ramp is and how people will force their way into it, these screenshots off Google Maps from Dec. 2022 and Sept 2019 show destroyed crash barriers waiting to be repaired.
I also measured how far that Miller Pipeline Dump Truck Driver would’ve driven if he just took the next exit, and it was less than one mile away (.75 miles.)
Thankfully, the dump truck driver didn’t hit him or the crash barrier, so no damages and claims need to be filed.
OP, however, states that he will be reporting this driver, whoever he is, to Miller Pipeline’s management.
“There no damages and no claims, just a complaint to a company about an angry man who’d rather cause a crash than miss his exit. Guess I’ll find out what Michigan auto law means by “The merging driver has a legal duty to yield and must be mindful of the other drivers.””
As /u/WireCommando also commented, corroborated by Traffic Law Best Practices by the Michigan State Police,
“If somebody is in a lane, it is the responsibility of the driver trying to merge into that lane’s responsibility to do so safely and legally. You are under no moral or legal obligation to “let somebody in” or yield to merging traffic. A person must join a roadway yielding to existing traffic.”
Hopefully, that Miller Pipeline Dump Truck driver will reconsider how he reacts to exits that he’s about to miss.
It’s safer to miss the exit and take the next one rather than almost cause head on accident with a crash barrier and the car’s around you.
