job after a truck rollover

He is lucky to still be alive and still driving... not all are so lucky

 

He received three broken ribs and one broken collar bone for his efforts.

 

Get ready to make a lot of phone calls. Hope you have unlimited minutes on your phone. I started out driving for C.R. England (mistake #1) and rolled their truck after 4 months. Went back to my old non driving job for 10 months and found anothe job that would take me. The key was safety/dot had no say in hiring matters. I drove for them for 6 months but the oil field had slowed way down so I started looking again. I ended up with 2 offers. Western Express wanted 8 months safe driving after the accident but decided they would just put me in a trainer truck for 2 weeks to make up for the 2 months I was short. The other offer was a small company about 25 trucks. I leave for the small company on Monday and my truck is already waiting for me.

Don't give up and be prepared to lower your standards. I told everyone I was prepared to haul chickin poo on a flatbed and tarp it to keep trucking. Good luck and learn from your mistakes.

 

Not all roll overs are the drives fault.... My buddy flipped one of our trucks at work (he had over 20 years accident free driving).. He rolled a Tub Dump (see picture below if you don't know what is it) when making a corner.. These trailers as you can see in the picture put the load being VERY top heavy poor design if you ask me (unless you have low loads and what we haul in them are always to the top of trailer)... Material was half frozen and half thawed.. Intersection is un-level and bumpy.. He told me he felted the steer axle turning the wrong way and over she went.. If anyone has experience with steering lift axles, then you will know that if they don't have solid ground (ie un-even ground) they will move wherever they want trying to find direction.. He wasn't going fast he was behind 2-3 cars behind red light and was over 100,000lbs... I have even tried to get up to speed (with different trailer) with lower weights in the same scenario (2-3cars and red light) and I can't even get up speed to be "speeding" around the corner...

When I haul these tub dumps, even going around the curves on the highway, on/off ramps etc... You can feel the sway of the trailer and it's a scary feeling.. When your behind one of these types of trailers going around a corner some would think your going to tip over.. They have lots of sway on them and I am talking a 50km/hr on-ramp dropped down to like 30-40km/hr on that ramp...


So not all roll-overs are drivers fault despite what others may think. Not all roll-overs are preventable and not all roll overs are caused my misjudgement or hotdogging the truck.... My buddy still has his job although they wanted to hang him.. The problem is the people who wanted to hang them either have no experience hauling these trailers or even worst some of these people were inexperienced at all, absolutely no trucking knowledge at all....

With that being said.... I seen a container driver who was at fault for his roll over... Going around a on-ramp way to fast.. Went over the barrier and dropped down I think it was something like 10feet down onto the highway... He is lucky he survived the accident.. 21 years old and not experienced... See picture..

 

Not all companies consider or even check a driver's PSP score when evaluating them for employment. So again, it's not a career ender.

 

My new company doesn't check. All they check is MVR and since I wasn't ticketed my MVR is clear.

 

''
So true, So true.

I could have got a job at a interview where they did not even know what a driver's abstract was! True story. I had to explain what the abstract was and why they need it.

Turned down the job because it payed less then what I have now. They wanted to pay $20 an hour, but it looked like study work. The abstract thing was a bit disturbing also.

 

I was going to say Western express but you already found that out. The best driver I ever knew was a guy named Jim Nary, over 50 years as an owner operator and he rolled his new cab over in 1979, down the side of a mountain. Instead of Jake brakes they had something called a brake saver , he had big hands and he would drive with his hands through The spoke of the steering wheel I guess he accidentally hit the brakes saverhis truck did a 180 but he rolled off the side of the mountain almost killed himself. Six months after he recovered he got out of the hospital he bought a brand-new 1980 PetE. with a 5 and a 4 and a 46 foot trailer and drove it all the way until 2004 without putting another scratch on it

 

I rolled one over there and that was the end of that....eight years ago and counting.

However, I did roll by their terminal in Albuquerque back in 2011 and saw a big banner for the "Forbidden Five".
Basically rollovers being one of the five you could get fired for.

Just thought it was an interesting banner to see after all this time.

 

But, at some companies they fire ya for a 5 mph fender bender. go figure.