Narrative:

Uneventful flight to iah. After landing on runway 17C we had taxied clear and were holding behind an A320 just short of 17R on em. [The A320] got permission to cross; so in anticipation of our crossing I applied some power so we could start rolling across the inside runway without delay. As expected; we got our clearance to cross; and at that time I reached up to turn on all my exterior lights to cross; and suddenly from our right a yellow pickup truck came from nowhere directly in front of us and proceeded southbound. Driver barely looked in our direction and was traveling at a moderate rate of speed. I applied brakes obviously; but we were not traveling very fast (just a few knots GS) and the brakes really were not required because just that fast the vehicle was already past us southbound. We were not really that close to the vehicle (maybe 30 feet nose to vehicle at the closest); but it startled both of us that he came from out of nowhere so quickly without regard for our presence. I would imagine he thought since he was going so fast he wouldn't be a factor; which is true; but doesn't give him the right of way for a non-emergency vehicle on a taxiway in front of an aircraft movement.anyway; I noted the vehicle number to first officer; and he reported the vehicle to ground control. There was no further incident; the aircraft was not rapidly stopped in such a way that anyone standing in the aircraft would have been thrown off their feet; and no damage occurred obviously as there was no collision. But; this ops vehicle was clearly operating without proper regard for an aircraft moving on a taxiway; despite the fact we were just starting motion. This was a turn for us at the end of a 4 day; and after we prepared the aircraft; an airfield operations officer came to our cockpit to take a written statement of the event. I provided a written statement for her to use for her records in a spirit of cooperation so she could pursue the matter with the operations vehicle. That statement is a close approximation to what I have provided here. Had this vehicle been operating in such a careless manner somehow gotten onto an active runway (17R was being used as a takeoff runway); it could have caused a major air traffic fatality event. There is no excuse for this type of vehicle behavior on any airport; but at iah the scale is even magnified.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737NG Captain reported a ground conflict with a truck on a taxiway at IAH.

Narrative: Uneventful flight to IAH. After landing on Runway 17C we had taxied clear and were holding behind an A320 just short of 17R on EM. [The A320] got permission to cross; so in anticipation of our crossing I applied some power so we could start rolling across the inside runway without delay. As expected; we got our clearance to cross; and at that time I reached up to turn on all my exterior lights to cross; and suddenly from our right a yellow pickup truck came from nowhere directly in front of us and proceeded southbound. Driver barely looked in our direction and was traveling at a moderate rate of speed. I applied brakes obviously; but we were not traveling very fast (just a few knots GS) and the brakes really were not required because just that fast the vehicle was already past us southbound. We were not really that close to the vehicle (maybe 30 feet nose to vehicle at the closest); but it startled both of us that he came from out of nowhere so quickly without regard for our presence. I would imagine he thought since he was going so fast he wouldn't be a factor; which is true; but doesn't give him the right of way for a non-emergency vehicle on a taxiway in front of an aircraft movement.Anyway; I noted the vehicle number to First Officer; and he reported the vehicle to Ground Control. There was no further incident; the aircraft was not rapidly stopped in such a way that anyone standing in the aircraft would have been thrown off their feet; and no damage occurred obviously as there was no collision. But; this ops vehicle was clearly operating without proper regard for an aircraft moving on a taxiway; despite the fact we were just starting motion. This was a turn for us at the end of a 4 day; and after we prepared the aircraft; an Airfield Operations Officer came to our cockpit to take a written statement of the event. I provided a written statement for her to use for her records in a spirit of cooperation so she could pursue the matter with the operations vehicle. That statement is a close approximation to what I have provided here. Had this vehicle been operating in such a careless manner somehow gotten onto an active runway (17R was being used as a takeoff runway); it could have caused a major air traffic fatality event. There is no excuse for this type of vehicle behavior on any airport; but at IAH the scale is even magnified.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.