By T.J. Ray

Columnist

 

Sun reflecting on the chrome grill of a huge pickup truck zooming up behind me got my full attention.  Surely, I thought, he’s going to hit his brakes before he hits me. Instead of plowing into my rear, he twitched his wheels and passed me, leaving me nervous that the accident had come so close and impressed with his driving.

Saved from the close call, I watched the big truck pass me.  What I actually saw was the lower part of the truck, not even up to the window.  Huge! At that disparate level, I was able to briefly examine his wheels. The brilliant shine from the spokes was somewhat disorienting but impressive. As he moved ahead, the width of his tires was revealed. Perhaps a foot from edge to edge.  

The price tag on one of those giants likely cost more than all the rubber on my poor little Honda.

Finally — actually nearly instantly — the truck went ahead of me, accelerating as it went.

Well, so much for that moment of observation.  But it was not the grandeur of the chrome or the bully impression of the tires that most impressed me. Anyone with a healthy bank account might duplicate what I had just witnessed. And the state allowed the driver of such a beast to tower well above the roofs of neighboring vehicles. 

So what’s the problem?

I forgot to mention the huge pipes protruding from under the bed of the truck, one on each side.  Each was perhaps six inches in diameter.  As the guy raced up the road, leaving several cars almost at a standstill, those pipes announced his going, his supremacy on the asphalt.

An initial guttural rumble was quickly overshadowed by a roar that lasted until the truck was out of sight.  I looked across at the fellow in the next lane, watching him shrug at this public roar—and outrage.

Fact: The driver likely had a license to be on the road. Fact: His driver’s license did not limit the noise he might make with his monster mufflers. Fact: The highway patrolman sitting quietly with his radar beaming did not pursue the roaring truck.

And there, dear friends, is the issue. 

Nothing the truck driver did was illegal! Expensive, yes!  But legal. What is missing from this reporting is the 64,000 dollar question: What gives someone the right—the license— to disrupt everyone’s quiet, to announce to one and all that his personal need to vaunt himself supersedes the public right to peace and quiet?

The only thing I might add is the old adage that my right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins.