Random thought for the day

Because today I saw this sign on a truck for roughly 17,394th time, let’s clear something up.

The sign, “STAY BACK 200 FEET. NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR BROKEN WINDSHIELDS”, is meaningless. Every state in the union, and I’m pretty sure the District, has a law pertaining to “secured loads.” That means that, if you’re carrying something, anything, in a pickup, and an item of size sufficient to fly off and damage the windshield of a following vehicle does so, it’s a traffic violation. In addition, the owner of the load AND the driver of the truck are responsible. No matter what the sign says. No matter how belligerent the driver is. No matter what. Same concept as a “NO TRESPASSING” sign on your property not giving you the right to shoot an unarmed intruder. Something called the law.

That said, if you’re the driver of the unfortunate vehicle with the newly shattered windshield or, more to the point, of the vehicle following too closely that is the potential victim of a shattering, keep this in mind: odds are the trucking company has one or more lawyers on retainer. Even if you are 100 percent in the right, they have the means to drag things out and cause you a great deal of aggravation. If you have better things to do with your time than fight a protracted legal battle with people who are of such limited intelligence that they think a sign indemnifies them against action when they’re clearly breaking the law, you might want to keep your distance. Maybe not 200 feet – that’s 2/3 of a football field – but think about allowing 15 to 30, just for your own peace of mind.