This is apparent from the National Drivers Survey
You would argue that common sense would prevent most drivers from braking their 1,200-pound car on purpose in front of a 50,000-pound truck in order to vent their frustrations. But as has become increasingly apparent lately, a lot of people lack common sense. The National Drivers Survey shows that 86.9 percent of Dutch professional drivers sometimes brake check gets. More than three quarters have experienced it more than once.
Then of course the question is: are there so many Dutch people who carry out a brake check on trucks, or is it a small group that checks brakes very often? ‘This form of road aggression is life-threatening for your own road safety, for the driver, but certainly also for other road users who drive behind the truck. They have a reduced view of the situation with all the possible consequences that entails. It is therefore important that we draw attention to this’, says driving instructor Toon Geerts.
Brake check at truck not the biggest annoyance
Incidentally, carrying out a brake check on trucks is not the biggest annoyance of Dutch drivers – it is number two in the list. Motorists who quickly shoot in front of the truck when exiting are what disturbs the drivers the most. Distracted fellow road users by mobile telephones are number three. Number four is also quite rightly an irritation point: motorists who drive slower than 80 km/h on the highway.
Nuisance caused by fellow road users when merging or merging is also in the top five. Perhaps it is not such a bad idea to make every motorist obligated to take a driving lesson in a truck, in order to cultivate a little empathy. Although it doesn’t take much imagination to imagine that an 18-meter truck is a bit more challenging to drive than a passenger car of less than five meters.
