Officer involved in accident with semi in Orland, FL

And I just happened to read an article awhile ago that they were forced into electronic logs due to a poor safety rating and exessive violations.

 

Exactly! This is a great example of why they were forced onto elogs!!

 

This has nothing to do with elogs! We are on elogs because this used to be a real old fashioned outlaw company that didn't care about log books! Those days are pretty much over industry wide, within 2 years elogs will be mandatory for everybody so ya better get used to em!

BTW, that driver was fired and I am flying to Florida tomorrow to pick up his truck!

 

http://www.allpar.com/squads/police-cars/charger-police-testing.html

Now I will concede that these stats are a little old. But consider that the Trooper said that there were skid marks showing that the officer tried to stop. And the officer still hit with so much force that he came out the other side of the trailer?

There was talk of there being a witness. And yet they could not say whether the officers emergency lights were on? The officer is only considered an emergency vehicle if lights AND siren are on. If the siren was on the truck driver may have heard the siren, and stopped thinking that the police officer was coming the other direction. Even if the officer was running lights and siren he still has the responsibility to operate safely. Remember the vehicle in front of him could have been stopped in his lane for any number of reasons. He still has responsibilities. Especially traveling at a high rate of speed, (which I suspect that he was).

Truth be told, with council, I suspect that it will be shown that there is at the very least shared responsibility. Personally, I suspect that the tuck driver was clear when he began he maneuver, and the Officer presented traveling at a speed that made it impossible for the driver to avoid being hit. Whether that can be proven, time will tell.

 

I picked up the truck and I am Bobtailing back to Colorado. I asked the driver about the accident and he said the cop did NOT have lights and sirens on and that he was traveling at approx 80mph.

He also said that the skid marks from the cop were over 80ft long which would prove excess speed according to the numbers posted above.

 

"The Florida Highway Patrol said Anthony Kirby was heading north when his cruiser collided with the semi, spun around underneath the trailer, and came out the other side backwards."

"Hall said troopers were still working to determine who was at fault in the crash. However, he said it's typically the responsibility of the vehicle entering the roadway — in this case, the tractor-trailer — to yield to traffic already on the roadway."

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Says it all. It was the Driver's fault. This cannot be spun any other way. How many times have we muddled under our breath when cars merge onto the interstate at 35 mph, then give us the finger? It is the merging traffic's responsibility to "MERGE" into the flow of traffic or yield to traffic at highway speed.

In this case, as I have seen WAY to many times, the driver pulled out in front of the police officer. You must yield to traffic on the road, not pull out when they are 100 feet from you. Luckily he was not killed or severely injured.

 

More charges are pending.........

 

Regardless if the police officer was driving irresponsibly, it is still the driver's job to yield to traffic on the road.

 

Exactly. Sorry to see anyone lose their job, BUT he had it coming.

 

Was he? There is such a thing as a "lights off response" - to something like an armed robbery in progress...