Trans Am Still

Ok, am I the only one who has heard about and laughed my butt off over the TransAm driver that literally destroyed a house in Pennsylvania yesterday? Along with hitting a stop sigh, a telephone pole or two and a couple of cars, one of which had people in it. When police finally caught him miles down the road he tried to run and says his GPS sent him that way and he didn't know he hit anything. If you've seen the pics of the damage to trailer and house your jaw will hit the floor over him even suggesting ignorance.

I'm in Amarillo. Taking a load from here to Emporia tomorrow.

I spent last night on the yard in Rockwall. The trailer lot was beyond packed plus there were newbies who had just gotten their trucks everywhere. I pulled in needing to get parked and was tired but waited and waited while one guy floundered hopelessly trying to straight line back into the last possible spot which ended up being too small of a space to back in to. I schooled these kids in how it's done. Dropped my trailer right there in front of a bunch of others, grabbed one that was parked in a spot, lifted the landing gear about 4 inches and then proceeded to move it over until it was two inches off the trailer to the left of it, effectively creating my own parking spot. I dropped it as is so the next guy can get under it and when he lifts his air bags will have enough clearance to pull it forward and crank the landing gear up. As I was hooking back up to my trailer a guy had just come on the yard and come around looking like he was about to back into that spot. I came on the radio and said "Driver, I know you aren't even THINKING about putting that trailer in that spot I just moved trailers to make for myself. He hesitated then went to park back behind the shops. After I parked I then spent an hour doing a good deed and helping a newbie that had no idea how the in-cab 5th wheel release worked on the 700 and then worked on helping him get to the empty he was told to grab, but after realizing what a pain it would be and that it was empty, I just went in to night dispatch and asked Marci to change his empty to a certain other trailer I had already verified as clean and empty that was easy to grab.

Once again though, me being annoyed had me backing like a pro. I was tired and had to deal with 20 miles of stupid traffic crawling on 30 coming in to Rockwall. I just wanted to cook my steak and go to bed. When I get to the point I start slamming equipment around and not caring, I actually end up impressing myself LOL.

 

I believe he said he was going to wait until after Christmas before he committed to anything .....that way he would get to spend this time with his family before starting OTR.

 

I read about the house in PA .....and watched it on their local evening news .....lots of bad PR for TransAm that's for sure. I didn't know what to say about it .....it was jaw dropping! I think they said he was 28, from Philadelphia and had only been driving 3 weeks. The really horrifying thing is that he most definitely had to have known what he did......but kept on going not knowing if he had injured someone or worse. Thankfully he didn't but .....


Would someone please, please put in place some training standards for schools and companies that includes breaking this addiction to the GPS???!!! As absolutely horrible as the King's first trainer was, there were two things that he insisted on. One was keeping up with the logs and doing them properly,(they were on paper logs then), and the other was that he turned the GPS off whenever the King was driving.

 

Talking about bad weather. If your not sure whether it's icy or not, watch the back of your mirrors. Is ice is building up on them, that's a purty good indicator, that the road is icy.

 

SHAMOKIN — A wayward trucker who found himself lost on Bunker Hill obliterated a Rock Street house this morning, dragging the truck’s trailer across the front of the two-story structure and ripping it to shreds from sidewalk to roof.
The trucker continued downhill and turned onto Sunbury Street, where he hit a northbound motorist, and continued south on Route 61 while pulling building materials behind. Multiple 911 calls were made to report the badly damaged tractor-trailer. It was eventually stopped by Shamokin police on eastbound Route 901 near Industrial Park Road.

 

Thank God the owner was able to rescue his Great Dane from the wreckage. Maybe when TA rebuilds the dudes house they make sure it's set back a little farther from the street to make sure their trucks can make the turn, in a residential area, on a narrow street, built 100 years ago. Not knocking TA, but really dude, what the hell were you doing while trying to fit that truck around that house? I guess common sense thinking is an afterthought.

 

Houston we have a problem

 

"Rasan L. Tyler-Davis, 28, of Philadelphia, was a new driver with Trans-Am Trucking Inc., Kansas. He’d only been driving on his own three weeks," ... "Tyler-Davis will be charged with four misdemeanor counts of hit and run, along with counts of fleeing the scene of an accident, duty to report an accident and careless driving...The trailer was towed, but Tyler-Davis was able to drive the truck."

Full story is here: http://newsitem.com/news/trucker-gets-stuck-on-bunker-hill-takes-out-house-1.1797912

Plugging in the address from the story into Google Maps, looks like the driver went on a near 3 mile rampage of destruction. Local authorities should be charged with a crime for allowing the driver to drive away in the truck.

 

So much for that driver's career. Wonder if that might make TA rethink they're training policy. Wonder if the GPS he was following, was TA's??????

On a side note, not easy to wake up at 0630, when you set the alarm for 1830. Can anyone say oooops?

 

Kinda feel bad for the family of the home the driver destroyed. I know TA is pretty good above accident forgiveness, but that is sa lot of damage, then add on the likely charge of fleeing the scene of an accident, his CDL days are history.

Hope he didn't leave his spatula flipping job on bad terms as he will be needing it back and problebly the best place for him.