Eric Boling Bracey posted a video to Facebook with one thought in mind: teaching people how pulling in front of a semi-truck could hurt them or even kill them.
He starts the video by pointing out a trailer and explaining the dimensions of it. According to him and the stickers on the back of the trailer, the trailer is approximately 10 feet wide. Showing it parked next to another trailer, it’s easy to see that there’s not a lot of room between the two trailers. He goes on to explain that the next day he’d be driving a trailer with 44,000 pounds of goods inside. Then he asks his audience, who is the people watching the video, how long it’ll take him to stop the motion of the truck if it’s going 60 miles an hour.
After showing the visual equivalent of 10 feet and 26 feet and explaining that he wouldn’t be able to stop with that load, he finally reveals the answer. It takes 414 feet to stop his truck if it’s going 60 miles an hour. That’s longer than an American football field.
Right after this, as a public service announcement, he asks people not to pull in front of these massive trucks and slam on their brakes. The reason is, a load going at that speed slamming into someone’s car could kill the driver of that car and he would have their death on his shoulders the rest of his life.