The case for dashcams continues to strengthen...

Wow. That's a tough policy man. I am doing a ton of work right now on cameras/tracking/security in the trucks and I was thinking that being able to show something EXACTLY in that one above would be able to cover the driver from citation and from DAC issues, but now you're going to have me looking even deeper, lol. Thanks for the insight.

 

Of course it is avoidable! If the driver would have stayed in bed that day it wouldn't have happened.

 

Australia is RHD Isn't it? Just thinking because I used to talk with a guy from Caboolture in Queensland a while back. If so that means he would've been on the side of initial impact.

 

IF the driver had made a hard braking and still was impacted then it woudn't have been "avoidable" however, without that nearly any company out there will label it as "avoidable" even though the police would cite the other driver.

 

thats cause yall work for knucklehead companies

 

yup, I work for a knucklehead company that takes safety serious. you're still getting the CSA points no matter who is at fault so they are covering their arses. The old ways are dead/dying of being able to have alot of incidents and move on with some other outfit or be a member of the good ol boys club.

 

I have a friend who is finding this policy out first hand.

Lady eased down the shoulder of a ramp on his blind side at a busy intersection.

He bumped her when he started to move. Zero damage to either. Her 4 year old standing in the back seat hit the floor. And the mother demanded the child be taken by ambulance to the hospital.

No ticket issued to him. The woman received no license, illegal tag, no insurance, no child restraint.

Company deemed it as avoidable. And placed it as a rearend collision on his DAC when he left.

 

Had a nearly identical accident at highway speeds. Was backing off the throttle when she came into my lane and hit me.

Ruled as preventable because I should have been following Smith System and "expected the unexpected."

Was only after an appeal that I got it changed to a non-preventable.

 

The term is commonly called a preventable accident, not avoidable.

My guess, theyll say he was in the left lane, the passing lane. Theyll use some sort of bs like that to write the driver a ticket. When the two insurance companies get together to decide who pays for what, theyll use the fact the guy with the CDL was issued a citation, so he is at least partially at fault.

OR

They will say he should have seen the inattentive driver coming up on his right side in his blind spot. They will then claim he should have taken defensive driving steps, such as applying brakes to allow that driver to pass. Im not making this crap up, its really the way they look at it.

The only way to 100 percent sure way to avoid a preventable accident is to have stayed in bed that morning.

Im not saying my description is correct, and not saying thats even the way it actually happened. But, that is the kind of wrong that happens to us on a daily basis.

Description: A preventable accident is one which occurs because the driver fails to act in a reasonably expected manner to prevent it. In judging whether the driver's actions were reasonable, one seeks to determine whether the driver drove defensively and demonstrated an acceptable level of skill and knowledge. The judgment of what is reasonable can be based on a company-adopted definition, thus establishing a goal for its safety management programs.

Note that the above definition of preventable accident is focused on the actions of the driver. It is the commonly used definition in evaluating driver performance. A broader definition, which can be used to evaluate the driver's and the motor carrier's actions, is given by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations as follows: Preventable accident on the part of a motor carrier means an accident (1) that involved a commercial motor vehicle, and (2) that could have been averted but for an act, or failure to act, by the motor carrier, or the driver.

The concept of a preventable accident is a fleet safety management tool which achieves the following goals:

It helps establish a safe driving standard for the driver.
It provides a criterion for evaluating individual drivers.
It provides an objective for accident investigations and evaluations.
It provides a means for evaluating the safety performance of individual drivers and the fleet as a whole.
It provides a means for monitoring the effectiveness of fleet safety programs.
It assists in dealing with driver safety infractions.
It assists in the implementation of safe driving recognition programs.

BTW, I had an accident very similar to the video above. I had changed lanes to pass a slower vehicle, and was in the process of passing a 2nd slower vehicle when the elderly lady driver to the right of me decided to change lanes. She began changing lanes, and I ended up Tboning her down the highway. I saw it coming, and hit the brakes preemptively, but I was empty and didnt have much braking traction. I pushed her down the road sideways for a couple hundred yards, before we came apart. Her car then shot into the ditch and took out a barbed wire fence and their car began to roll through a field. The car contained two elderly people both in their mid 80's. Thank God they were just bruised and cut up a little bit, but no major injuries. I shook like a leaf for a couple days after that.

The cops came out. City cops, sheriff, highway patrol, and of course the DOT came since there were injuries. Everybody and their drug dog crawled through my truck, under my truck and around my truck. They didnt give me a single ticket, and I was #### proud of that fact! But, when it came time for the insurance claim. My insurance company decided it was better just to pay their med bills than to fight it out in court. I was floored by that decision, and it somehow made me like I was partially responsible for what happened. When I DEFINITELY was NOT!

 

I've been involved in two non-preventable accidents. Both totaling the other vehicles. The first was in 2004 with Schneider and the second was last November with my current company.

I was never charged with anything. In fact the officers at the scene asked me my side, looked through my permits and that was it. I guess I'm just special or something because I've never suffered a single adverse affect to an accident that wasn't my fault other than the dings on my truck. The 2004 wreck resulted in injuries to the other driver requiring them to be hospitalized. I told my side to Schneider and never heard another word about it nor was anything put on my DAC.

I wouldn't work for a company that scrutinizes my every action. It's pretty simple, you either trust me to do my job or I don't work for you.