A moment of complacency

I was sitting at our terminal the other day when a tow truck showed up on the hook (not to uncommon most of our trucks have over a million miles mine has a million six)
Anyway took a closer look and it was a day cab Volvo that was in a serous accident. The damage is as follows the radiator and cooler were smeared across the front of the engine along with the front raidiato support no hood I'm assuming that there wasn't enough left to haul back
The engine mount was twisted up under the block engine mount still attached along with a large chunk of the engine block. The engine itself was pushed about a foot back from where it normally sits. The front axel was also pushed back all the way to the fuel tanks
The transmission was holding on to the engine block by a scrap if aluminum. The drive shaft was shoved into the tail housing of the transmission. A chain was the only thing holding the whole mess from falling out.
Of course the windshield was shattered and the b pillars bent... So they back this mess next to me and I ask them if the driver was ok they responded yes amazing they said he hit a cement truck.
He was coming from las Vegas and ran into the back of the cement truck the cement truck was doing about 20 mph the Volvo 61 mph he didn't even touch the brakes
The next morning I se a driver coming out of the fms office I ask him how he was doing he had a bandaged hand and forehead I ask him if he was the driver of the Volvo he said yes and he started telling the story ...
He said "iv taken that route 100s of times it was all my fault" it's all my fault he kept saying it
He further explained "was going up the hill empty doing 61 mph that's what the black box said and the last thing I remember was looking out the passenger mirror when I turned to look out of the windshield it was too late I didn't have time to touch my brakes "
He said the other driver was ok he got the worst of it I'm guessing a fully loaded mixer hauls about 9 yards of concrete HEAVY.
He said I'm soo glad it wasnt a car I would have killed everyone I offered to help him clean out his truck and he went on to tell me how his carrier is over idc policy is over 5000 in damage is automatic termination. He was soo concerned about his family and kept saying he had let them down . Now this is a 40 year accident free career driver this is his first accedent and probably out of a job he said just got complacent too comfortable wasn't paying attention . I really felt bad a real nice guy all those years of safe driving
He left I told him that I hoped to see him next time I was down in fontana and god bless.
There it is the long and short of it I wrote this as a reminder I find myself getting complacent at times and it only takes a second and your carrier and maybe your life is over a verry good driver actually my trainer for swift a good trainer and driver I know huh I know a few lol but said " once you know every thing there is to know about this job hang it up before you kill yourself or someone els"
That's always stuck with me


So thanx for reading
God bless and merry Christmas

 

It seems that in this occupation it's easyer to get fired than not .I guess my company is going non tolerance on accedents and logs

 

Sorry about the spelling iPhone Texting is a job in it's self lol

 

It's tough to here stories like that these peoples dreams going away in a flash it's extra hard when you talk to them on person and to see there pain

 

I don't know any thing about the bridge guy but the idc guy deserves another chance