Truck terror

On our great South Island road trip we met some nice people as well as those who hate tourists, campervans and Aucklanders.

Being the object of sarcasm because you happen to come from Auckland can usually be passed over with a joke. But there’s no capacity to wriggle out of it if you’ve been identified as legitimate target for harassment by an anonymous stranger driving a 30-tonne truck two metres from your tail light. If you are wondering why, without your consent, you find yourself in this life-threatening game of dullminded prejudice versus holiday innocence, I suspect it’s because you are driving a campervan on what the truck driver behind you probably believes is ‘his’ road.

From our experience, the South Island is a trucker’s wild west, its wide open spaces and long distances between towns makes policing difficult.

In the North Island, because of more effective policing, truck drivers are better behaved in my opinion.

Our first experience of South Island truck anarchy occurred on our way to Murchison from Nelson.

We noticed ahead of us a medium-sized campervan being followed so closely by a behemoth that it was only visible to us on bends. Having no place to pull over safely, the van continued its journey at 100kmh - reasonable we thought. Then it happened: the truck overtook, giving the van a blast on its horn. As it passed, an arm appeared through the open window of the camper and what looked like a camping hatchet was flung at the truck. Violent road rage is never acceptable but in the circumstances the behaviour of the truck driver was, to my mind, far worse than that of the van driver.

I believe much of this problem stems from the mistaken assumption by many truck companies that public roads are ‘‘their’’ space. Let’s be very clear – New Zealand’s roads do not belong to trucking companies anymore than they belong to me. And forget the bunkum about competition