Keep your head up and level !!. Look straight ahead .. Very very important

OH MY GOSH driver! I would have to say, in a situation like that, ANYTHING that happened outside of your cab, could be considered NON-PREVENTABLE

 

With all this talk of liability, seems to me some key points are being ignored.

Just because you're not found "at fault" for an accident, doesn't mean you won't be held liable. If evidence shows there is anything at all you could have done to avoid or mitigate the damages from an accident, you can be sued in civil court, and found liable, to the tune of millions. You're the professional, your supposed to know better.

So if the accident is deemed preventable on your part, guess who the lawyers are coming for?

Also, for an o/o, there is down time to be considered. You're equipment will need to be repaired or replaced, and the insurance company will give you as close to nothing for compensation as they can.

Let's see now, you've just been sued for millions, which will cost even if you win in court, and you're losing thousands while you're waiting for your truck. Sounds peachy so far.

Now what if it happens to be serious damage to you? Look and see what can happen if you're being tailgated on slick roads by a heavier vehicle for an example of how it can happen.

So now you're laid up in the hospital, maybe permanently disabled, or possibly dead. You, or your estate, are being sued, you're bank account is bleeding money with no revenue coming in, and your family is suffering along with you, or maybe without you.

All because you were too lazy to check your mirrors, and foolishly thinking that as long as it's not your fault, you won't be harmed.

It's been 20 years since I've had an on highway accident, with 21 years of experience. I think I'll keep doing all I can to not be in an accident at all.

 

Get a dash cam and move on, driver.

 

Please expand on the idea that you not knowing he was out of control made it better.

 

It was her fault, she didn't put up the warning sign!

 

A dash cam is not going to save you, in fact, that evidence will be used to prove that the accident was preventable on your part. So now you're advice is to not only let yourself be involved in an accident, but also make sure you record yourself doing nothing to prevent it?

Sounds brilliant.

 

Before mentioning that, it’s possible that even someone looking at their mirrors every few seconds could have been too late to react. The accident happened really fast.

That being said, suppose I saw the driver right on time. So the options are to brake or perhaps move over to the shoulder, so the driver wouldn’t hit me. By doing so, it would be reasonable to say that the driver could have flipped over. There was, unfortunately, a ditch about a couple feet lower than the road surface. Sure, all of this is speculative with perhaps a grain of truth. Keep in mind we were on the freeway and the guy was going much faster than me. I wonder what are the probabilities of someone going about 70 MPH and losing control of their vehicle and not be hurt in any clear way. The guy was walking around like nothing had happened.

 

hmm, how fast were you going? If you were doing 1 mph over the speed limit you should have been going slower and had you been going slower maybe he wouldn't have lost control at all because the moon and stars aligned to create blah blah blah

If someone loses control while passing you there's probably not a whole lot you can do about it whether you know they are there or not. I still like to know what the traffic situation is all around.

 

Really? Right after I showed the two officers my dash cam video, it was game over for the other guy. My video matched what I was saying and what the other two witnesses were saying. I remember the safety guy at Stevens who reviewed my case saying that he always likes the cases where there is a video because it’s much easier to close the case. Get a dash cam, driver. I’m being serious. If you are a safe driver, you got nothing to fear. A dash cam might even encourage you to drive safer.

 

I think his point is valid to driver-facing cameras more than dash cams. But given the current state of ambulance chasing, everything will be used to demonize you before the jury. And it's very difficult to counteract those initial emotional reactions.