Woman holding baby hit by truck on crossing; driver arrested

There are more accidents with trucks cause of the size and increased blind spots due to the size.

Depending on the size of the truck sometimes there are very wide blind spots which even after checking you might still miss someone who may just happen to walk into the blind spot just after you check.

Which is why trucks needmore AI and sensors to reduce and prevent accidents, as a single driver can only have that much span and range of attention.

"I didn't see her, because I was screwing around with my phone, instead of driving / I was drunk".

Having driven extensively in Japan. I would say the Japanese truck drivers are far better than the pedestrians and bicycle kamikazes here.

But we don’t know what really happened, if the driver was really on phone or if the lady with kid was trying to cross the intersection in a hurry. Hope they get well soon.

El Rata

Why are truck drivers worldwide such terrible drivers, despite driving being their only skill?

How do you know they are? Do you realize how many blind spots there are on a truck, depending on its design?

Wonder how this woman couldn’t have seen anyone when she was turning RIGHT.

I have my own 2-ton personal truck which I drive a lot in the busiest parts of Tokyo, Chiba, Yokohama.

Whenever I’m at an intersection (and especially turning left) I make a point of stopping just before the crossing, and proceed veeeery slowly so even if there is a bicycle coming full speed (happens a lot) they will have to stop.

Actually this is the worst of driving in Japan, just too many kamikaze walkers/bikers around, everyday. Just yesterday I was entering a parking and when I was literally in the middle of the walkway this woman makes a point of coming full speed on her bike and pass inches between me and the gate. The considerate/patient japanese is a myth.

I drove big gasoline tank trucks to pay for grad school. I recall an accident a co-worker had leaving a delivery. There was a car in front of him at the driveway waiting for an opening in traffic to turn right and leave. The nose of the truck was so tall my co-worker lost sight of the car in front of him. They apparently sat there a while waiting for a gap in the flow of traffic to make the turn. The wait was apparently long enough for my co-worker to forget there was a car in front of the truck. You know where this is going O_o When the gap finally emerged in traffic my co-worker gunned it and hit the car in front of the truck. Whoops!

For those who don't know, truck drivers are routinely expected to work 12 hours or more a day, every day, five or six days a week. Add to that dispatchers who are constantly calling you to ask when the customers load is going to get there, then screaming at you when you tell them you are stuck in traffic. No paid holidays, no paid sick leave, no paid vacations, some didn't even offer health insurance and if you did take a sick day off you were ripped up one side and down the other. One employer even threatened to fire me when I had to call off work after my father died. "How am I supposed to cover your work" was all the dispatcher could scream at me over the phone. I just hung up, didn't care one way or the other if the sob fired me. They didn't but still. Unless you have done it you don't know just how mentally and physically exhausting the work can be.

El Rata

it may seem like there are so many accidents involving trucks, but they spend so much time on the road, you just can’t compare with your single skill of driving a car.

i presume you have travelled all over the world and studied truck drivers and accident statistics?

I've lived in 4 countries and visited more than I care to count, having driven in most of them I can tell you, most of them are terrible drivers,

It doesn't look that way from the drivers seat of a really big truck. Most car drivers have no idea how much room a truck needs to stop. The truck driver needs to leave a bare minimum of a four second gap between it and the next car (minimum, a larger gap is preferable) but that gap just ends up being an invitation for cars to change lanes in front of you then tap the brakes so they can exit the expressway. Drivers won't pull in behind you to exit. Instead the race in front of you and swerve across your lane, on the brakes, to exit an expressway. Guess what? Then the truck driver has to brake and it angers people behind them. "Why is this idiot hitting the brakes? Can't he drive?". Sigh. Cars do not give trucks room to make necessary lane changes. In fact the instant the driver operates the turn signal to change lanes cars will crowd in alongside pushing and shoving to get ahead of your truck. It can take a couple of kilometers sometimes to make a lane change because other vehicles won't cooperate and let you over. Trucks need huge amounts of room to make turns, especially with the longest trailers. Car driver often won't give it, or they try to sneak in and turn inside of the trailer thinking they can beat you through the turn. That one doesn't end up good sometimes. All the trucks I drove had non-synchro gear boxes with from 10 to 15 speeds. Non synchro means the driver has to match engine rpm to transmission rpm for each gear and each road speed. You don't just push the clutch in and shift. You double clutch and match revs. Clutch in, shift to neutral, clutch out, rev engine up for a downshift or let revs fall for an upshift , hold the revs steady with the throttle pedal, push the clutch in, shift into the next gear, release the clutch. Done right the gears don't scrape and you don't even feel the shift. Smooth as a babies backside. It takes a long time to get good at it. When you get really good at it you can "float" the gears and shift without using the clutch. But even good drivers sometimes miss shifts or get lost in the gears if they have to make a sudden stop in the middle of a shift. Spend a day in the drivers seat of a big truck sometimes.

A truck in a crowded city like Yokohama is more likely to have an accident like this than in an open road or open country side. The driver must have full 110% attention on the road or else.

Even if there are blind spots, you prepare yourself by seeing if there are people about to cross the road as you approach the intersection. Of course, there are also drivers, who don't give a damn. I know from experience. I once had a car who meandered round me because he couldn't spare two seconds to let me finish crossing the road - yes, I was already on the crossing. Pure scum.

"The 37-year-old woman was holding her three-month-old daughter when she was hit by the truck which was turning right."

If the truck was turning right, then the truck was in 1st gear and traveling at relatively low speed. Transmission synchronization and gear-shifting were not a contributory factor in this accident.

you don't see you don't drive

@that person

i presume you have travelled all over the world and studied truck drivers and accident statistics?

I've lived in 4 countries and visited more than I care to count, having driven in most of them I can tell you, most of them are terrible drivers, maybe my comment comes across as offensive to people related to truckies, but come on you know it's true, most people driving trucks ended up doing that because they didn't posses any other lucrative life skill.

Do you realize how many blind spots there are on a truck, depending on its design?

Idk, I'm not a truckie, luckily I've been blessed with a good set of skills other than driving. But I guess if I was one I would be aware of this and therefore a more cautious driver.

Hmm. Have you ever driven a truck?

Yes, the elevated view can help a lot but there a a lot of blind spots too.

we don’t know what happened but most truck drivers I have come across are usually the most considerate of other drivers and pedestrians. More so than car drivers.

They are more careful because one mistake can cost their job, as well as a high chance of death.

We take not of trucks because it usually leads to fatality. For cars, that’s not always the case and less reported.

(That is until the hit the expressway and then all bets are off!)

For all the Bozo's that never drove a truck before their are many blind spots on a truck more then on a car, and you should use spell & gramma check before submitting your comment.

Now depending on the height of the truck and the height of the mother the driver may not have seen the women crossing the street. It is possible that the driver did not see the women yet she is still at fault since she was operating the truck. Hope the women and child recover without any lingering health issues.

Why are truck drivers worldwide such terrible drivers, despite driving being their only skill? I can't stand them truck drivers regardless where they're from, uncultured bogans.

Hope the mom and baby make a speedy recovery.