Was this preventable?

preventable maintain your lane!!!

 

What if the tires of the abandoned vehicle were actually on the fog line or even a foot into the travel lane? ... always a possibility in the dark, in a slight curve ... reason to some how get yourself in a position to move left before reaching the dark vehicle if at all possible.

 

At fault and preventable are 2 completely different animals.. By law you made a mistake by leaving your lane.. this is going to sound crappy but it is true.. You left your lane to avoid a collision.. The insurance company will not see it this way they will see you fell asleep and hit a car in the break down lane... Even if they concede that other car came in your lane the insurance company and your company will deam it preventable because you should have let the other car hit you instead of giving right of way to your lane.. You are entitled to your lane as long as you maintain it once you cross the line to avoid a collision it is preventable.. .. I know this is backwards but I am about 99.9% sure this is what the response is you get from your company/insurance company.. Yeah its wrong but its the way it goes..On the other hand if that car hits you runs under your traile and kills 3 kids you are going to be charged with manslaughter.. Its fair aint it..

 

Yep, it was preventable. Simply ask, "Would this accident occur if you did not drive off the roadway onto the shoulder? " That is how the insurance companies are going to view it. If the SUV driver was a decent human being, and stopped to see if there were any injuries, and provided his/her info, then maybe, and it's a real big maybe, it could be considered non-preventable.

As far as the LEO reporting that the accident was not your fault, he must be putting a lot of weight into your statement. The facts, evidence the LEO had in front of him were, you drove onto the shoulder and hit an abandoned vehicle. The distance that vehicle was to the right of the fog-line really has no importance, as long as it was to the right.

My boss, the owner of the company I drive for says we are to maintain our lane, even if a car full of people is coming at us head-on. Pretty pathetic really. It means that he is more concerned about the money and points, the reputation of the company, than human life.

 

1. This took place in caifornia.

2. Therefore, no logical answer is available.

 

Actually, it isn't pathetic at all. It's what I was taught, too, when I first started driving larger vehicles....maintain your lane. If somebody does something stupid in front of you, apply he brakes and try to shed as much speed as you can and if you hit them, hit them IN YOUR LANE. If you leave your lane and take out the family in the minivan next to you, it's YOUR fault. If you swerve to miss an idiot and turn yourself over in the ditch, the idiot didn't get hit and therefore wasn't involved so he doesn't stop...in other words, HE DOESN'T EXIST! Shed as much speed as you can and pray you don't kill them, but maintain your lane because as long as their stuff gets tore up too, you have half a chance convincing the cop what actually happened. Yeah, you still might get a ticket for SOMETHING...but if you wreck all by yourself without taking the idiot with you, you are guaranteed to get the ticket.

Personally, I'm not out here to "protect" anybody. While I will do whatever I can reasonably do in order to not cause injury or property damage to anyone else, my #1 goal each day I leave the house is to get back home alive and in one piece at the end of the day. As the driver of a large truck, I stand a far greater likelihood of being injured or killed in a collision with a fixed object or in a rollover crash than I am in a collision with another vehicle. If the driver of that other vehicle isn't concerned with his own well-being, why should I kill myself trying to spare him? I will do all that I can safely do in order to lessen the severity of the crash (i.e. slow down), but I will not leave my lane. While I may not have much concern for the safety of somebody crossing into my lane trying to wreck me, I will NOT jeopardize the safety of other innocent motorists by leaving my lane and crossing into theirs. If somebody wants to cause me to wreck, they are going to be caught up in it...and I'm going to do my best not to involve anyone else.

 

If I saw an "object" on the road I couldn't identify, I would have slowed down and turned on my high beams.

 

The insurance companies, the feds, trucking companies with safety departments staffed by people who never drove A truck, are all working in unison to make life miserable for everyone involved. Note that the tolerance for points limits on new hires is rising. More transgressions are becoming negotiable as companies struggle to fill open driving slots from A dwindling pool of applicants who have failed to walk on water. Keep going folks ! To err is human, to repent is divine. Everyone makes mistakes , we still have erasers on pencils and white-out. Someone has A mishap, I'm not talking about major accidents, DUI , drug infractions etc. , and the enforcers are tripping over themselves to ruin him. The purpose of discipline is to educate, modify behavioral patterns , not to inflict economic injury or degrade.

 

There exists an entire cottage industry of law firms that specialize in extracting money from trucking companies wherever a truck is involved in an accident, preventable or not. It you're out there on the highway and do not have a dashcam of some sort, you're a sitting duck. Rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. Nothing kills a case quicker than video evidence.

 

Yup...ur right. It can put a truck driver out of business just as fast. Having a dashcam is like going to a casino.