Had a minor incident in training. Will they send me packing?

During day 4 of my OR1 training I was doing some backing/yard practice with my trainer at our destination. I was trying to a right turn in a tight spot and got a concrete barrier with the spare tire rack of my trailer. Currently Im now riding lame duck in the truck and will be heading back to Dallas to have a talk with safety. The only other problem I had was some mistakes on my logging and finding the gears in the bran new T660! were driving, not any more for me.

Things were looking good and I was having a blast until I ran into that darn barrier. Funny thing about the logging, we were driving on 80 past the Werner world headquarters in Omaha and my training said Im dropping you off here.
Well I hope they'll give me a second chance and let me back out there I think I chose a good company to start my career with.

Im hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Wish me some luck folks.

 

hahaha...i love the picture we have on the walls of that big neon sign being set up...

You should be fine. It's usually not a big deal. It happens. Just dont try to go to another company for a year, or lie on your applications in the future or you'll get screwed.

 

Yeah doing alright in my 5th week of OR1 can't get dispacthed to one more friggin mountain! All in all not bad but, my trainers truck has no XM/Sirius, no APU and no CB lol! Should be done in a few days then back to Dallas to fight a B.S ticket in Waxachie Texas. Safety has let me stay out they seem to agree the ticket is B.S

I was in the left lane on 35E toward Dallas beacuse of police activity on the shoulder. As I was passing by a patrol car pulls out right next to me lights flashing. So I break hard and get behind him. He continues to pull away. 10mi down the road I get pulled over by a State Trooper and he gives me a ticket for passing a stationary emergency vechicle.
The trooper that pulled me and asked me the standard question. "Do you know why Im pulling you over"? "My reply was no sir"

"The Sherrif said "you almost hit him". Well the Trooper was kind and was just following orders. I don't think he wanted to give me a ticket.

I think I'll be able to beat the ticket.

 

Here is the Texas move over law. I hope it helps:

SB 193 requires drivers nearing stopped emergency vehicles-with lights activated -to either slow down or change lanes.
The law states a driver must either vacate the lane closest to the stopped emergency vehicle if the road has multiple lanes traveling in the same direction or slow down 20 miles per hour below the speed limit. (If the speed limit is below 25 mph the driver must slow down to 5 mph.)
Emergency vehicles include police, emergency medical service and fire vehicles.


If you plan to fight the ticket there are a few questions that need to be addressed. If the emergency vehicle pulled in front of you then how can the officer be able to explain you passing it when it is in front of you? The law says that if you are unable to move over you must slow down to at least 20 miles below the posted speed limit. Can you reasonably say that you were traveling 20 below the posted speed limit? How heavy was the traffic? Were there other vehicles preventing you from moving over? During the stop did the officer say ANYTHING to you about your speed? This is important because your speed is going to be the critical issue in this case.



Since you were in the lane adjacent to the emergency vehicle, the officer is going to have to articulate your speed to the judge. If speed does become the issue, is the officer trained in the use of speed measurement equipment such as radar or laser. This type of training requires officers to visually estimate how fast a vehicle is traveling. Is it reasonable to believe that the officer misjudged your speed and pulled out into the lane anyway? A truck's size makes it look like it is going slower than what it really is.


I don't know what the speed limit is where the alleged violation took place. If it was 70 then your maximum speed would be 50. If 65 then 45. As a professional truck driver knows, even at 45 miles per hour it can take some distance for these big rigs to slow down or even stop.


Overall, I think you have a very good chance to win this. Please let us know what happens.
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Two things here. 1st, file "not guilty" on the ticket. You can simply state that it was unsafe to make the lane change, and not possible to drop to 20 mph below with the truck safely by the time you arrived at the scene.

Second, you should not have been surprised that the stop happened. You need to look further down the road when you're driving so that y ou may avoid this type of problem. You should be scanning the road not only close to you, but about a mile down the road to see what's going on up there.

 

Update: Didn't fight the ticket after talking to safety about it. I got what I thought was a good explanation of the situation and have since moved on. Just finished my first month solo and have had some fun and "adventures" out there. Gotta say the company has been supportive and understanding of my mistakes out here.

Gotta say all of my fellow professional drivers out there have been very helpfull to me and have made me feel very welcomed to the industry.

 

Hope that doesn't come back to bite you ~~~~~~~

Good Luck !!

 

Accidents/incidents

1.)Pull through at reciever during training.
2.)Damaged passenger door at reciever while backing.
3.)Backed into 4 wheeler at truckstop(vehicle should not have been there) but, clearly it was preventable on my part.
4.)Just last weekend flated trailer tire and bent rim on Major Degan 1-87 exit ramp on way to Hunts Point for about the 8th time.(I drive NYC local/dedicated!

5.)Today managed to knock off trailer door backing straight line into door
in Danbury, CT. Worst of all it's happens on the 1st of 4 drops for the day.


Not to mention I had to be towed twice, 1st time got lost on first solo trip
to NYC. Second time got stuck off of I-20 just pass FT.Worth during the ice/snow storm.

Dunno sounds like way too many adverse events to overcome and remain employed with Stevens. Man I really wanted to get a year in and see where else I could go with my driving career but, now I just hope to hang on here somehow.

 

It seems that backing is your worst enemy. You must be tense while doing so? you have to relax, and take your time no matter who or what is happening... TAKE YOUR TIME!!! don't let anyone rush you during that process which is the most critical and stressful part of the trucking gig IMO. If you have problems backing up you can always ask someone to spot you or have someone do it for you if it's a tight spot you can't get into while the driver is doing it for you get in the truck and ask him how much of the wheel should you be turning to get the truck positioned correctly. your license, work, bread & butter is at stake here. I hope everything works out for you.

 

It takes alot of guts to tell everyone your problems that you have had in such a short time. I think if i was you i would be getting a free copy of my Dac report and if Stevens hasn't sheet caned you just keep with them.But if they give you the boot try us express you only need 3 months expirence. I'm sure your learning from your mistakes. good luck!