I had my first accident today after being on my own for 3 weeks and I'm feeling unsure of things. I was already nervous about driving such an enormous vehicle because I can't see everything around me and large vehicles can't stop and move quickly. Plus I've seen and heard about a lot of accidents. What happened is I was backing at an angle and hit a concrete barrier that was around a light pole in a shopping mall. I hit it on the passenger's side right by the wheel well. I damaged the hood, bumper, and frame rail. Luckily though no one else was involved, I wasn't hurt, and I didn't cause damage to anything else. My employer Schneider won't fire me, but if I keep messing up they will. I feel discouraged, backing scares me, driving in big cities scares me, driving in city scares me. Although, most of what I'm afraid of is what OTHER drivers are going to do, and that an accident will happen and I'll be at fault because I'm the "professional." I feel overwhelmed about the thousands of decisions I have to make everyday, every lane change, every turn, constantly scanning and monitoring speed and following distance. I'm scared it will all be too much for me. I don't think all get into a major preventable accident though, I guess, when I really think about it. I'm very cautious. I wonder how many other new drivers get into accidents or incidents in their first few months.

unfortunatly that will be considered a preventable....

take your time....if you feel rushed...stop! hurried decisions are normally not the best.

relax...it will get easier with time and experiance.

never exceed your comfort zone.

Stop,Think,look over the whole situation before you go forward or back up,look at the big picture,all around you,look twice in your mirrors and three times if you need to,be sure of all you do now and it will have trained you to forsee way ahead of time,always leave yourself an out,think and look immediate,and ahead,practice ,practice,practice,before you realize it you won't be unsure,unsafe,and much more confident in what you do.If you had gotten out before you backed ,you would have seen that post,could have been a kid or little old lady standing there.Learn the lessons well. Good luck,always try to back up on your good side,drivers' side,then you can see where your front is,and everything else,if you can't,pull up again until you can. Good luck,you'll do ok,just conscentrate on what you are doing.

Yea, I know it was a preventable.

I didn't lie about it either.....

I do get out and look a lot for the trailer, I guess I didn't realize how easy it is to damage the tractor. That was my problem, I was so focused on not hitting anything on either side of the trailer I messed up my tractor. And someone put a stupid light pole in front of a dock!

I'm sure I'll feel better when I get back out there and do things the right way.

I'm thinking about getting one of those mirrors that goes over the passenger side door. They had those at Transport America, but not Schneider. I think I might have seen the barrier and avoided the accident if I had that mirror.

Don't let that situation get you down. Sooner or later everyone is going to hit something. The trick is don't do it too often.
Shake it off and learn from your mistakes. If you keep with the attitude you have, you will hit something tomorrow. Some guys may say I ave driven for 20 years and have never had an accident. You never know what tomorrow brings.
Best thing to do is learn from it, keep your head up, and enjoy truckin!!!!

Sounds like you're not careless in your attitude, that's a good sign. Sounds like your immediate supervisors believe in you. Hope the upper eschelon that don't know you will rely on those that believe in you for their judgement, but then they rely on numbers. I'm sorry you didn't goal or feel the bump early enough to limit damage. Good luck to you, the truck gods will prevail.