Accidents

I don't know either if this would be a good subject, but I'm open to it. I have been involved in two over 30+ years, both completely non-preventable (one, a deliberate "suicide by truck"), the other, a drunk driver..I didn't drive for a few years after that one because of guilt. Yes, the guy was drunk, yes, he crossed the double yellow line in the middle of the night in a rural area of New Mexico and yes, he followed me right into the ditch and still died. After I got out of the hospital in Amarillo, I just couldn't get back on that "horse" for a long time, because all I could think of was that if I had not been on that road at that particular time, he may still be alive..The other one, well that was a dumb love struck kid that just wanted to make some kind of asinine statement by taking out a fuel truck and he chose mine...Oh and as far as "help" from any of those companies...Not really, I worked for a "major" and they actually wanted to know if I could work the next day, which I did not..I took a month off after that one and had to do some soul searching. But, economic reality set in and eventually I had to go back..I still have occasional bad dreams about both.

 

I gave a friend a ride into the city about 7 years ago now to pick up his truck after being repaired after someone had committed suicide by truck. It was 2 months or so after the accident and he drove down there and I was going to drive his pick up home and he his tractor, but as soon as he got in the tractor and headed to the drive way in the dealership, he just froze, and couldn't drive the truck. it was really rough on him, took him another 6 months before he could get back to work.

He does say every so often how that event still haunts him. Glad I haven't had to experience something like that, and hope I never have to.

 

You can go through the whole thing, or soften it.

Some might walk away with a piece of knowledge. Others will just keep telling themselves, "I'm better than that. It won't happen to me."

Too many people do not understand what a "real" accident is. And the safety departments within the industry are the band leaders when it comes to this issue, with their "Every accident CAN be prevented" mentality.

 

I guess I been lucky over 2 million miles accident free had a couple of people run into me but nothing serious.But I will say this it's always in the back of my mind.

 

i had a friend back in the early 80s driving a tandem dump was going off a ramp on an under construction interstate that ended and kids had been riding dirt bikes and the got up on the curb to cross the ramp when he was coming by and one of them must have thought the bike was in neutral and popped the clutch right under his tandems....so much blood they had to bring the fire trucks to wash the road...... bothered him so much he committed suicide 6 months later

 

If not you, it would have been some other unlucky schmuck. Look at it from the standpoint of you potentially prevented these people from hitting a mother and her minivan full of small children. Cliche I know...but it's reality. It could have easily been someone like that instead.

 

I know im just a rookie compared to alot of you guys, But 2 days before I had my graduation ceremony from my votech school i was driving down 295 here in jacksonville. I was behind a swift truck was a nice day all the sudden the truck was making a B line for the woods of to the side of the highway. never seen any smoke off the tires from him trying to brake,no brake lights.
Truck went off into the woods. So me my class instructor and the other students in the truck stopped and tried to help. When we got up to where the cab of the truck was supposed to be it was pretty much gone. The engine was gone. cab pretty much gone. One of the other guys climbed up on the wrecked cab to see if the guy was still alive needless to say he wasn't guy came down looking white as a ghost. Was definetly an eye opener. Me and my instructor had to stay to be interviewd by the state troppers. I asked what caused it they suspected medical complications.
I still see that in the back of my mind like it is happening in front of me again. And i almost never started my career driving because of it. Defintely gave me a whole new prospective on saftey while driving a rig though.

 

I have had to investigate several that happened to drivers and owner operators working under me.

The worst was at Matlack, we had word of a local rollover accident. Eeryone else ran out the door to the scene. Five min. later I get the 2nd call from the local PD telling me that the driver didn't make it. Calling the Safety Director [Gene Meenan] with that information was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. The driver was going up hill thru an intersection when an old guy ran the red. He struck the RH curb and shot across the left onto the sidewalk taking out a utility pole. The tractor ran up the bank, lost traction and side slipped down to the sidewalk before it gained traction again shooting back up the bank where it struck concrete steps that tore the steering axle off. We figured the first impact caused the throttle to jam.

As it rolled off the steps the load shot forward and the cab smacked down on it's roof. The thick steel plate [.75" or 1" thick] that the tractor 5th wheel was mounted on just bent out of the slider. The entire cab roof was crushed down to the dash. The 5th wheel stayed on the kingpin as the tractor was propelled down onto the sidewalk and street.

Working in Safety I have the unfortunate honnor of investigating (4) fatals.

One got to me the most when I read the obit for the other trucker.

Our unit was broke down on the shoulder waiting for the wrecker to arrive. The Owner Operator was sleeping in the bunk and that probably saved his life.

A loaded tractor trailer blew out a steering tire at interstate speed. It smashed into the rear of our MT intermodal unit. The box was popped off the chassis and landed upside down over the guardrail. The chassis ended up in three sections. The tractor 5th wheel was torn off the frame. The sleeping driver ended up on the floor. With the impact he would have been killed by the impact if he was sleeping over the steering wheel...

The other truck rebounded across the lanes into the median and burned killing the driver.

He was a 44 year old married man with three kids