Trucking career over before it started

Well today was a bad day and probably ruined my chances of getting a trucking job for at least the next 3 years.

I was on my way to work this morning in my mom's jeep because my jeep has had some mechanical problems lately. Headed north on I295 in jersey right outside of Trenton where I 195 shoots off. I was in the slow lane, taking my time and really not worried about when I showed up at the job site because I would be the only one there. All of the sudden a lady 2 lanes over in the fast lane realized she was about to miss her exit. She came across the 2 lanes right in front of me and when she got in my lane she stopped dead! There was a two lane merge onto I 195 to my right. I guess she decided now she needed to look for traffic or saw me and froze. There was nothing I could do. I stood on the breaks and started sliding while at the same time trying to edge over to my right. I didn't have enough time to look to see if anyone was next to me so I couldn't cut the wheel hard. I didn't have time to do anything! So I ended up hitting the back passenger side bumper of her car with the front driver side bumper of my mom's car.
It was a pretty good impact but the my jeep could still move so I pulled it off to a safe spot on the shoulder. The dumb lady stayed in her car in the middle lane on a major road at rush hour!! Her car was still drivable. Cars were swerving around her and almost running into her for about 45 min until the cops came. That caused a major backup on the road.

When I talked to the cops she told them she didn't know what happened. I just ran into the back of her for no reason! I told the cop my story about her cutting me off. He said that he wasn't giving any tickets but anytime there is a rear end accident in nj the person in the back is considered at fault. That made me want to get In front of him when we pulled out and slam my brakes on in front of him so he would hit me and I could sue! Haha.

This all really sucks because I was almost ready to start looking for a first time trucking job. Just got some things on my record expunged and everything was pretty clear on my record. The only issues I had were an administrative suspension ( not a driving suspension) that was suspended for about a week, 1-1/2 years ago because I was late making a payment on a fine. And a seat belt ticket. So I was pretty clean.

So now I have a cdl, went to school for it 20 years ago, no experience and a nice fresh accident along with the other minor problems. Looks like I'm going to be a plumber for the next 3 years. And the lady is lucky I didn't get out and knock her teeth down her throat I was so mad. Lol

 

I put this in the wrong section by accident sorry. I guess today is full of accidents. Lol

 

No i didn't take pictures. I actually never even talked to the lady because the first thing I did was get my car to a safe place where I wouldn't get hit again. There were 5 lanes of traffic. 3 for 295 and a split of of 2 lanes for 195. I pulled off on 295 and she stayed back where the accident happened. When the cops came they pulled her car off on the split for 195. So we were pretty far away from each other. I know you are supposed to leave the cars where they get hit and take pictures but common sense told me leaving cars in 5 lanes of traffic and getting out to take pictures was a really bad idea. After watching her almost get hit a bunch of times in the middle of the road i knew I made the right choice.

I have my doubts that a starter company will want to hire a person with a fresh accident on their record. Especially since the cop said in jersey a rear ender is always the back persons fault.

 

Yea, there still might be a chance. Ptl doesn't hire in nj from what their Web site says. Although they do hire in PA and I'm 10 minutes from there so they might make an exception. I will definitely make more money if I stay a plumber. At least my first year. But money isn't everything . The way it looks none of the starter companies are good to go with so I'm not too worried about that. It just sucks that I've been working to get things resolved so I would have my pick of starter companies. Now I just got limited again (

 

It would have been a perfect time for a dash cam. And while I was sitting there I thought the same thing. I didn't look at my skid marks because of the heavy traffic. I'm not even sure the cops did. Unfortunately these are the things that you don't think about until it's too late.