18-wheeler had its trailer lights off on the highway at night

[Rand]

Had this happen the other day. He woke up and turned them on after I flashed him a couple times.
It was past dusk.. about as light out as full moon..

 

[97prizm]

Reminds me of when a large transit bus from a local route had no rear lights on. I was able to make out the local number and someone answered. I explained the issue and the bus pulled over immediately.

 

[dbias]

I saw the same thing...ONCE in my life, but an obviously different situation.

I was traveling east on I-80 about 20 years ago around the Indiana/Ohio area. It was about 2-3 am, and I was doing well above the speed limit trying to get from Iowa to my home at the time in Canton, OH.

I was around 20 mph over the limit cruising along on what was a nearly empty interstate. Suddenly, three black Suburbans FLEW by me with just headlights, and no running lights. Then a black semi with something on a flat bed trailer fully tarped in black, again with only headlights, and no other lights...then followed by three more black Suburbans. They had to have been going 120+ at least. No way was I going to catch them to tell them to turn on their lights, and I honestly am 100% sure it would have been a possibly lethal event if I even tried. It was one of the top 3 spookiest things I have ever seen in my life...gave me the creeps.

I had a half dozen of those black suburbans, a couple black "bread trucks" and a few vans at my fire station for days during several presidential visits to the area.
Talked to some guys from a group of black helicopters during one of my 13 day training classes at the National Fire Academy in Emmittsburg Maryland.
These people tend to be 1. Away from home. 2. Mostly bored.

 

[grampi]

He can see several lights from his mirror. He knew they were out. Or not working. No need to act all weird and try to tell him.

If he knew they were out and was still driving anyway, the driver needed a ticket, at least...

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

Completely unrelated to the incident that started this post but I saw one a couple of days ago at about 6:00 in the morning driving with the trailer lights off. Pulling it was definitely some model of Kenworth with the narrower grill.

This time I did not do a single thing since I figured the driver probably knew all about it.

 

[JTK]

@schwinney You did the right thing trying to alert the trucker, but I'm not surprised he/she didn't respond. There's so many wacko's on the roads these days you never know what you're going to get into.

The issue you describe is pretty common. Trucks are always dropping and hooking, connecting/disconnecting. Especially these days. They're always working on the lighting/electrical on our tanker trailers among other things.

 

[Blinker]

You could have just called 911 and reported it.

Why?

I’m just going to assume you were just trolling with that comment.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

I’m just going to assume you were just trolling with that comment.

You could have just called 911 and reported it.

So, before I toss and turn and fail at sleeping tonight, I'll have to briefly again run down how the experience has been for week Good Samaritans that have felt the need or civic duty to call 911 on another motorist, such as I have with obvious drunks that can still drive the car well enough to speed up slow down speed up slow down just regular drunk driver call 911... long story short, you'll find out how little police are actually on the road when you do that and if you're like me and you stand up for yourself when they ask you for YOUR information - presumably so they can reach out to you between a half hour and an hour after whatever emergency you've reported has taken place and they then get there and the people involved are long gone - dispatch seems more interested in arguing with you about why you won't provide a phone number then the actual details of whatever you're trying to report. They have the ability to patch you into a State Trooper but they're out doing a number of things and they put you in some kind of a queue.

It's basically a gigantic waste of time and you get the distinct impression that they're trying to figure out where YOU are so that they can somehow go after you for what they're trying to say is wasting their time, it would seem. I'd hate to have to rely on them for anything.

I wonder what it would actually take to get a State Trooper to come out on the road somewhat fast... maybe tell them you're following the vehicle and then they'll tell you not to and if you say no you're still following. But yeah I mean if you're shot and bleeding on the side of the road you better be driving yourself to a hospital or something because waiting on them you would die.

So of course if you're thinking that you could just fabricate some wild emergency well then you'd be lying, so.......

 

[i6pwr]

Old thread, but the trailer uses a 7-pin connector for the lights from the tractor.

The tractor could have it's lights working and the trailer could have a bad pin or pin socket in the light cord.

Brake lights, turn signals and running lights all have seperate pins. Might be fine when hooked up, but could lose contact when worn during turns as it tugs on the light cord under spring tension.

 

[dumkid]

Don't call 911 on people who just have lights out. Unless you enjoy people randomly calling 911 on you while you're trying to get home. The cops don't care, and if they do you're just wasting the other guys time.

 

[svtrit]

I was driving one morning and saw a big rig swerving quite a bit. I hung back a bit to watch, then got bored and decided to go by him. I saw a pedestrian walking along the highway and in my rear view mirror noticed the rig drifting towards him only to swerve away in the nick of time

I slowed down, got next to the truck and called the company, reporting it all and demanding they radio to the truck and immediately get him off the highway, or I would call the State Police and let them discover what he had as an issue, explaining what had happened.

Thankfully he pulled off the next exit. I should have called the police anyway.