Walts Drive Away (you to the poor house)

This is exactely why I think every driver should have a camera on their dash when they drive to CYA. The company sure isn't going to cover it for you. And if you had that video to show the police after the accident, the other driver would probably be in jail for that.

 

So if he pulled off the shoulder why couldn't you go to the right ?

 

Very good question. You have to realize though, that things are happening very fast in a situation like that and your first instinct would be to look to the left to get out into the left lane.

 

You'd be surprised what gets ruled preventable . I just read an article where a 4 wheeler passed a truck on the right , pulled in too soon , and clipped the trucks bumper . National Saety Bureau ruled it preventable because the driver should have anticipated the 4 wheeler's move and slowed down . http://www.etrucker.com/apps/news/article.asp?id=77775 Third article in Safety column

 

My company has it's own National Safety Council that rules on our accidents. They are TOLD by the company how they have to rule certain types of accidents. Oh and those would be ruled CHARGEABLE/PREVENTABLE such as hitting a piece of road debris that caused a dent the size of golf ball in the fuel tank. If you don't report it then someone see's the dent, your fired for failure to report an "accident". This happened to a friend of mine at work. To me that's total BS. He also had over 1 million miles accident free as hardwrknman2 had.

 

They'd never rule a rear end accident non-preventable. Doesn't matter if the fourwheeler had no taillights. If your headlights illuminate something in the road at night you shouldn't be rolling so fast that you can't stop for whatever they illuminate.

 

Absolutely true.

In his case i could see it ruled Non-chargeable / preventable. In my opinion from what he says happened it could have been prevented but non-chargeable because of the circumstances. JMO

 

Its amazing your doing 60 mph a car on the side of the road pulls out in front of you driving slow and you got to hit the brakes hard risk other people and yourself trying to avoid an accident because of some foolish driver. I rolled my truck back in 08 to avoid a head on because some one came into my lane, one lane and I was top heavy caring pipe at night. I thank God I was not injured and the pipe help me because the truck rolled with it. Im thankful the witnesses stuck around for me and the cops to give a statement. If not I get blamed and could have lost my life for some idiot not any more if your dumb enough to get in front of a fast moving vehicle at 80k its on you.

There is no need for others to suffer because of your dumb actions. I want to go home at night. The sad part for hardwrknman2 is he gets the short end of the stick trying to avoid an idoit driver. Train operators are not blamed when you think your going to beat the train and dont make it. Trying to stop on the dime with that much freight doesnt work and dont expect trucks to do it. We see here and we know that, the traveling along public expects us to be able to do miracles to defy physics.

 

We have a lot of incentive to be observant, safe and to drive as far down the road as possible all the while being completely aware of our immediate surroundings. It's highly unlikely that your company is gonna go to bat for you in any accident situation.