Near miss on Hwy 408 outside Benton

[M R Dux]

I was pulling my rig back into town after a good trip Friday. As I was coming thru the Clark's River Bottom on the river bridge, I met a grey Dodge dually truck. I saw it coming far enough away that I consciously hoped they would get over since their rear tire on the left was a foot over the line IN MY LANE!!! My boat and trailer are as wide as can be legally pulled but I still have room to stay in my lane in all but the most unlikely scenarios. The Dodge never moved an inch, I did, My front right trailer wheel clipped the bridge abutment hard enough I saw the rig move in my rear-view mirror. The Dodge never budged.

I made it home with no blow-out and in the walk around didn't see anything but a deep scuff on both trailer tire sidewalls. On closer inspection, the tire hit so hard the alloy wheel cut a 2 inch gash in the sidewall, deep enough I'll have to replace the tire. I'm hoping the wheel is OK. I'll find out when they break the tire/wheel down to replace it. I'm going to be out $100 to replace a tire I'll be turning back in on the rig in a couple of weeks.

I thought of how close I came to destroying my truck and boat and somebody else's trucks. All because somebody was driving a truck they didn't want to get close to a bridge with. I know I'll never find out who it was in the Dodge. I just hope MY close call was witnessed by them and they'll learn from it.