GA: Fiery interstate crash kills 5 nursing students

You are exactly correct. Folks can keep saying there isn't a "New Breed" of trucker on the road. I beg to Differ

 

what I see more & more is 4 wheelers driving worse than drunk drivers. they are everywhere. they surround us all the time,over 70 % I see have their phone on their leg,lap, or they are typing on it. I don't think our law is bad, but it just leads down a slippery slope. the greatest generation is slowly dying off & the younger generation, some in my age group too I might add are just a different breed.

if the conclusion is made that talking on the phone is dangerous, fine, but why just cause & after it was dangerous for one driver makes it dangerous for all? why not the law BEFORE the fatalities? what gets me is what's to stop the law makers to say if it's a safety concern for us truckers NOT be have a phone up to our ear & talk, why not band the talking on the c.b.? or changing the radio station, what about looking at your watch? where does it stop?now that in my county & surrounding counties have NO texting laws,


now all drivers are trying to hide their texting, taking their eyes off the road MORE than before it was illegal. they are MORE DANGEROUS NOW. I would like to see a law that punishes, or what's the sense of the law? our fine & for our co is so steep it keeps most all of us from breaking the law. now if the 4 wheelers had a stiff law, they need that. 1st offense $200.00 fine second offense phone get taken away, third d.l. suspension.

 

The sad state of things is that this will result in calls for:

• Higher insurance limits for carriers (even though Total and other megas self-insure and don't buy insurance)
• Mandatory ELDs (Total features them on their website, so the accident driver was probably "compliant")
• Mandatory speed limiters (the crash truck was a late model Cascadia and likely speed limited anyway)

WSB radio is already reporting Total's CSA profile like they just found Monica Lewinski's stained dress or something. Like it's a surprise that a mega carrier has a lot of violations.

I am anxiously awaiting the results of the accident investigation to see all the facts, before using circumstances to convict the driver or his carrier only on the limited details visible in the news footage and CSA carrier page.

You know, there is a remote chance that this crash happened just over the crest of a hill and the victims swerved in front of the truck at the last minute. Or, he might have been following too close or speeding as well. I'll wait for the police report before pointing any fingers.

 

yes total is owned by us Xpress.... BUT us Xpress doesn't control or run them

 

Yes, you are right our trucks are governed, and we have the collision management devices on the front. I don't know what year truck he was in, it looks like an older Pete. I know that when I started 3 years ago, all the new trucks had it, I'm not sure how long before that though.

 

so out of 85 crashes ONLY 4.71% a total driver was at fault.... in other words 95.29 % of the OTHER drivers got citations


got it...

 

From the look of it, the Total driver is lucky he wasn't seriously hurt....from the pictures I can see on my phone, it looks like the body of tanker is bent from the collision.

 

Yes that looks like a 2012 Pete. Most of the 12's have/had On Guard. I drove 2 of these, one had one and one didn't. He could have had one and maybe it was broke. I can't see where a working one would not have curtailed this impact, at least minimized it to such a degree that it wouldn't have been this serious.

Notice the decal on the side of the truck? Don't they put those on the military veteran's trucks?

 

What difference does it make if he had an emblem on his truck that indicates he was a military veteran?