Carbon monoxide kills trucker

Yep. It's called "tough love."

I mean seriously, how can a person be so dumb?

I don't agree with the anti idle laws and company policies either. They are a bunch of pelosi. But to put yourself at risk of death over this? It just does not make sense.

 

wow so this driver lost his life because of no iding.i feel bad for his family.

 

I guess what really is needed here is the name of the company. It will then be known if the driver was saving a few bucks or the company did not allow idle to be used.

 

A few years ago several drivers died in there trucks from heat.Then the large companies revised there ideling policy.Oh the driver can idel but say covenant policy is anything over 30% they charge the driver$3.50 an hour. An with celadon there new trucks have a censor ...if the temp is over 30 an under 75 the truck wont idel. These companies dish out so much grief,the driver isnt given any insentive to want to stay with the companies anymore.

 

The way I see it? The companies will continue to pressure company drivers not to idle to keep warm/cool enough to get the required sleep to stay alert while driving, and until the companies are sued for wrongful death these anti-idle laws will stay in effect. How stupid is it for a company to require a driver to shut off his engine so as not to cost the company any extra money? Now here's a gene pool that needs cleaning out. How much more will it cost them in lawsuits because the driver didn't get adequate sleep and not alert enough to drive an 80,000lb vehicle? Those involved with this scheme to cut costs and/or pollutants, are going to find this will come back to bite them big time in the butt. Or companies can figure (when they pull their collective heads out of their butts) that putting an apu in the truck will be much more cost effective than a few lawsuits.

By the way, when I was young we went camping and had a heater in our tent that used Coleman fuel. We followed the instructions and partially opened one of the windows. Maybe the driver figured he had enough ventilation of fresh air. It's sad all the same. With carbon monoxide you don't know you have a problem, you just fall asleep and never wake up.

 

Can I just ask why all your trucks arent fitted with cab heaters that run of the diesel tank ?

We've had them for years, they dont need the engine on to run them and they dont use a huge amount of fuel.

You set the thermostat and after the cab reaches that temp it switches off until it detects the temperature has fallen and it resumes heating, switching back on and off. It has timer settings too.

 

LOL do you know where the fumes of those heaters go? They are mini garage heaters. Takes cab air, diesel from the tank, small combustion chamber, and a catalytic filter, and back into cab. Look up webasto heaters.

Buddy of mine Bruce G decided he would warm his cab with a charcoal hibachi. I cant say people up here in Maine are terribly bright. Well story has it, he lit the thing, waited till it was just coals, had some kind of baffle to keep radiant energy down, set the thing in cab for 5 minutes, in 3 he had ignited the contents of the cab. Never laughed at him so hard before or since. Think Forest Gump, you get the idea.

 

Why is it so difficult to understand that the driver put himself in this situation, tragic as it was. I see stories like this all the time – carbon monoxide kills X. “Oh, but it’s an unseen, non-smelling gas!” Sure it is. “He couldn’t have known!” Bullschnit! If you’ve got a faulty furnace at home that you don’t know about, that’s one thing. But this isn’t an unknown killer. People KNOW the causes and most of those causes can be avoided – like this one. People KNOW that you don’t operate a heater or other device that puts out Carbon Monoxide in an enclosed space. If you do, you’re gambling with your life and you are most likely going to lose.

Would you go swimming with a great white shark? No, you wouldn’t. Why? Because you know you might very well die. Everyone knows this. This situation is absolutely no different. And what really torques my shorts is that it is instances like this why we have warnings on toasters to not operate this appliance in the bathtub. People immediately assign all blame to the company when some very avoidable tragedy occurs. “Oh, if I was that family, I’d sue!” Why? Because the driver did something stupid?

It’s not about the company’s or the state’s anti-idling policy. We all get that there are issues with that and that changes absolutely need to happen. But instead of assigning the real accountability to the driver in this case, which is where is should be, everybody is up in arms. Well, why didn’t the company do this? Why didn’t the state pass this regulation? Why didn’t someone think for the driver?

I can think for myself, thank you very much. If I am in a truck and I’m cold or hot because I cannot idle, I’m going to look at my options, immediately discarding any that puts my life at risk. And if that means toughing it out for the few days until I can get home and get another job, that’s what I’m going to do. In this guy’s case, $50 on a decent sleeping bag at Wal-Mart and he’s still here. Not an overly difficult or financially breaking option and the guy obviously worked through his options enough to think that a propane heater was the way to go.

Again, it’s a tragedy when someone dies before their time. But I have a hard time feeling sorry for someone that really does nothing more than the equivalent of “hey, ya’ll! Watch this!”

 

The webasto heaters used in trucks have an exhaust pipe at the rear of the sleeper over the drivers side fuel tank. I have never had any fumes in my truck from using one, and if installed when the truck is built they are not very expensive.
But many company's (mine included) are too cheap to pay for APU's or cab heaters.
We have an idle control system that just makes it so the truck will not idle between 40 and 78 degrees for more than 5 min.
And if you get your idle over 25% the trucks speed goes down.

To me this is not an idle policy. And I know that my company has a lawsuit on them now for wrongful death of a driver. It is going to take dozens of these deaths and court losses for the company's to get the picture. And it will also take the media getting the story's. Right now they are kept quiet most of the time.
If that driver had frozen to death and not died from the heater, it would have never made the news.

 

Can someone explain to me (a non-trucker) why there is not better technology out there, that can power hearing and AC without a diesel engine?

Marine systems are sophisticated, using solar and turbine systems to trickle charge 12 volt batteries, meaning that heating and AC can be run without even starting the engine. Houseboats often use this technology, so is there any reason it can't be adapted for a truck?

If a truck is running for 10 hours a day, it should not need to run again when parked just in order to get the cab temperature right.
Isn't there a better system for obtaining and storing power?
And a non-fume heating system using 12 volt power, that would eliminate the risk of CO and other gases?