Frozen trucker case

We don't know exactly what happen but 6 judges sided with the driver so in this case I say Transam was in the wrong.

 

What some of us old ones did have that the young ones apparently do not is a set of what I call trucker daddies roaring at them, sometimes a little phyiscal abuse to set the lessons in stone. When something comes up you can almost hear them in the seat next to you... and follow through accordingly.

 

I will add, most diesel fired bunk heaters have the pickup tube set in such a manner that it won't pull fuel if the tank is very low.
Irregardless, so what if they fire you , why would anyone want to work for Scum MEGAs like that? You don't mean anything to those people.

Now... If you were actually physically harmed by their careless disregard for your safely, I'm all about suing their ##### off.

This case is really better to be handled by OSHA , who needs to be involved more in trucking. Way way too many dirtbag companies like trans am that put people in shotty , piece of garbage trucks that company execs would never stop foot in....... Yet people work for these idiots and keep them in business.

 

All that means is there are 6 judges and 1 truck driver who ought not be in their chosen vocations. Judges ought to rule on the LAW as passed by the legislature and signed by the president or governor...NOT based upon emotions or what they feel the law ought to be. It is not a judges role to make laws, but rather to apply them to the situation presented before them by the litigants. And the trucker, well, the story speaks for itself. Lack of common sense out here is a sure fire way to get in over your head.

 

If he was in advanced stages of hypothermia, is he really thinking straight? Probably not. But he is thinking survival, and that is to get warm. Calling 911 probably never crossed his mind in the situation he was in.

 

He STILL should've INSISTED on fueling earlier on in the game, knowing the temps in the vicinity to be below zero. The apu will NOT run if the fuel is extremely low. Then again, being new, driving for T/A, and feeling "intimidated" and experiencing "hypothermia," he reacted how he did.
He won the case, anyway.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/...ndanger-your-health-do-it-or-risk-being-fired

"At 1:18 am — nearly two hours after first calling Road Assist — Maddin was awakened by a cell-phone call from his cousin. The cousin became alarmed by how Maddin sounded; he seemed to be shivering, and his speech was slurred. Maddin straightened up in the cab and noticed that his skin was “crackling” from the cold, his torso was numb, and he couldn’t feel his feet, according to the administrative review board ruling. Maddin hung up with his cousin and called TransAm’s Road Assist unit again. He was told to “hang in there.”

According to the review board opinion, Maddin “tried to follow this suggestion but became fearful of losing his feet, dying, and never seeing his family again.” After another half-hour with no relief, he called his TransAm supervisor, reporting his physical symptoms which, by then, also included trouble breathing. Maddin explained that he wanted to unhook the trailer from the cab and drive to a gas station. The supervisor ordered him, however, according to the review board decision, “to either drag the trailer with its frozen brakes or stay where he was,” warning that the company could be fined if Maddin left the trailer unattended."

 

I think it's safe to say this driver was very new to [OTR] truck driving. Considering all the poor choices the driver made due apparently to lack of training, this should be a wake up call to the industry.

We MUST find a way to improve driver training at all the various stages. Even the "simplest and most basic" aspects must be taught and tested on before they are allowed to solo.

As seasoned and experienced drivers and carrier management as a whole, we all take too many things for granted as being "common knowledge".

This is one driver where the circumstances, combined with his poor training, had catastrophic results. No doubt there are thousands of new recent solo drivers on the road TODAY who have the same inadequate knowledge of "basic things".

There is plenty of blame to go around but this and other situations could easily have been prevented with issuance and testing on the contents of a ten-page booklet, before being issued their own truck.

 

I would have to disagree, if you don't have common sense, then you don't need to be driving in the first place.

 

Really? He was so low on fuel he could not idle, keep the heat going to save his life. However, he knew he had enough fuel to unhook and drive off? Unsafe to pull the trailer but also unsafe to leave it sitting on the side of the highway.

I think he just fell asleep, it got too cold and that caused him to be so cold he was in trouble. He f'ed up every step of the way, hit the bunk instead of seeing the problem through the right way as I posted about before.

 

The video says there is law. And everything that happened was against the law. So 6 judges ruled in favor of the driver and the law. Even though most of us seasoned drivers would have never put ourselves in that situation in the first place.