Had a wreck, needing advice on what to do now.

Something to take note of, DAC/Hireright/USIS is not the only background check service being used and you have the right to request a free copy of the background check if they used something on it to disqualify you. 9 years of driving and there are 2 companies for a total of 7 months of verifiable(to them) experience from back in 06... thats it.

Now after I got turned down from Pride, they sent me a background check copy from a place INSIGHTFIRST and on it was a ticket for 45+ over the speed limit.I hit the floor! I pull my mvr every month because I'm still looking for work and I have had one ticket since 1999. It was a speeding ticket on the same date as the background check but was for 5 over. I called Insightfirst from the DMV parking lot and 3 days later it was fixed. I never would have known about if Pride hadnt sent me a copy.

So be sure to check for the name of the service, or names. And request a copy of it.

 

I don't know what you can do now after the fact, but if I can play armchair quarterback for a moment, I will say, stay in your lane let that guy hit you. I had a similar thing happen right before New Years 2010, going down the road minding my own business and this Excursion plowed into my drivers side drives and fuel tank then he spun off into the median. It was listed as non-preventable on my part. It does show up as crash and tow-away on my PSP which sucks for me.

 

My life, my truck, my name, my career, my well being, my house, my family is not going on the line for some Darwin Award recipient. If I am going to be dead, there will be someone there with me. You will never hear me say to a lawman, "some four wheeler cut me off and ran me off the road!" only for the cop to ask that dreaded question before he gives you a driving award, "where is this four wheeler?"

OP, it's a good thing you swapped paint. If you didn't, the cop could have written you a 'stupid' ticket...aka Failure to Maintain Control/Driving Too Fast for Road Conditions.

Someone might say, "Noone knows what they will do in that situation." Waitaminute...do you think for a moment that MNDriver who told OP that he goofed and to 'hold your ground, to hell with the cars' is just arm chairing it? I believe him. There's conviction in his words. He said, "HOLD YOUR GROUND, TO HELL WITH THE CARS." That's a lot different than saying , "Try to hold your ground/do the best you can to ignore the cars".

Your biggest test as a driver will be on the two lane. The bigroad is easy. The two lane is much more challenging. Everyone that frequents the two lane has had a near head on collision. Everyone. The hoppers, the bull wagons, the oilfield trucks. There's no shoulder, there's no evasive maneuvers. There are trees and houses and deep ditches, cliffs, skinny bridges...etc. You'd better make your mind up BEFORE venturing the two lane.

 

Pete, I know someone who was involved in an accident and he rear ended someone. No deaths, thank God... Not sure all the details... driver said he was found not at fault and there was no "Driver/Vehicle Examination Report". He did find another company to drive for and it didn't take too long but it was a very small fleet with a few old trucks with maintenance and paperwork problems... He had to run constantly northeast and put up with low pay, and pay his own social security cause they gave him a 1099 and no health benefits...

 

I learned long time ago on soft gravel country roads hauling sugarbeets and corn. You DO NOT drive on the shoulder with a loaded truck. EVERY

Running concrete ready-mix and gravel trucks, same thing. STAY IN YOUR LANE.

Shoulders are for parking a broken truck on. Maybe. NOT for driving on.

 

Man... that REALLY SUCKS!! And it can happen to any one of us. I don't know how many times I have put my hand outside the window and gestured at drivers who were coming too close to my truck... and gave them a very angry look... I saw sometimes they were reading or doing something else while driving and not paying attention... other times I saw they were in a hurry and couldn't wait to cut me... other times I wondered if they were getting closer to try to read something on my truck or just hypnotized by the road...

 

My sentiments exactly. I t-boned a drunk driver who ran a stop sign. Never felt one bit of remorse nor did I lose any sleep. Drive like an idiot around me and you'll get hit. You're an idiot if you swerve and roll the truck avoiding a negligent driver. Why on earth would you avoid a non-preventable accident to wind up in a preventable one? That mentality is beyond stupid, and goes against what the DOT and everyone else teaches.

So here's to the 'drivers' who will opt to swerve every time:

Do you constantly use the smith system? I bet you don't. You probably don't even know what it is. Why do I ask? What if you sideswipe a car swerving? What if you run over a pedestrian? Swerving is flat out stupid no matter what the circumstance is. It's better to hit whatever the object in conflict was and then stop instead of swerving and loosing control.

 

Had a guy in Chicago try to pass me on the shoulder of a 1 lane exit. He ate the wall. Smokey shows up and writes the guy a ticket. My company called it preventable. They wanted me to take some extra training. I quit and started with my current company. Didn't even slow me down.

Had a buddy from my old company hold his ground and kill 2 people in California. Didn't even hurt him from getting another job.

Had a friend who worked for my current company cut his wheel, roll his truck 3 times. They had to cut his team mate out the sleeper and fly him to a hospital. My buddy can't get a job riding on the back of a garbage truck.

had the boyfriend of a pilot car cut his wheel to avoid a drunk in California. He missed the bridge and landed on the highway below. Screwed his back up. Drunk kept on going. I had to tell my pilot car that her boyfriend is finished. She's struggling to keep the house and feed the kids because he can't work.

i was riding a two lane in Colorado. Had my mom riding shotgun. Some idiot in a pickup decides to pass another vehicle less than 100 yards from me. My screamed and grabbed the steering wheel and tried to yank it right. I held the wheel still. The pickup yanked his wheel hard left and went on a field trip and slammed into a tree. Mom looked at me in shock, " OMG, you were going to hit him!" " Yes, I was going to hit him. I sure as hell wasn't leaving the road!"

had a woman in Mississippi try to merge onto I 10. I had a 4 to my left. She hit my right steer and the lugs chewed her door up and the drives punted her off road. Cop gave her a failure to yield ticket.

was running out of Orlando on highway 50 west. A female Covenant driver swerved to avoid an idiot driven 4. She went into the trees. The 4 never stopped. That lady driver was dead when we got to her.

Saw a driver get killed in Cuba, Alabama when he swerved left to avoid a 4 who refused to yield. Driver took down 14 trees in a cab over. They peeled him out in pieces. The 4 never stopped.

Question: Why is it that we have drivers that say they couldn't live with themselves if they killed someone and would prefer to cut their wheels, yet the 4 wheelers won't lose any sleep when they leave you there to die? In fact they will probably text their buddies and joke about that 'dumb truck driver whom they forced into the ditch'.

 

I've received several Private Messages from some of those guys that went with those companies & even though the pay is low, they are very happy to be back at work, because no one else would hire them. Once they get some clean driving road time, they plan to move on. They are using those companies as a stepping stone to get where they want to be. No one else on this forum had any recommendations for those drivers as to where to apply, specifically names of companies.

 

While I respect your opinion, I disagree. I somewhat agree, kind of, with the notion of holding your ground when someone does something stupid, because it really is their fault.

But what if someone does something stupid and forces a car with a family in front of you? Those people are innocent and had nothing to do with it.

What I'm getting at is that you don't know the exact situation. What may appear to be a stupid mistake may actually be someone having a heart attack, diabetic shock, or a hundred other issues. And, conversely, they could've been texting while driving or driving while drunk. You just don't know.

My main point is that if I feel that I can avoid hitting someone else without endangering my life, I'm fine with the ditch. Obviously I'm not going to drive off the side of a mountain or something, but flat ground next to the highway is always preferable to killing someone in my eyes. Regardless of what stupid mistake someone makes, it is not my place to decide whether their life is worth sacrificing when I don't absolutely have to make that choice.

I have a dash camera in my truck that records at two angles, so I will have whatever proof I need in regards to what caused the accident, and I'll fight whatever I need to in court if it comes to that.

But I understand why some drivers may disagree with me, and to each their own. Everyone is free to do things as they wish, and everyone has their own opinions on things. I was just voicing mine, no one is required to agree