Had a wreck, needing advice on what to do now.

For the sake of you all I am going to keep this as short as possible to avoid a long drawn out bore fest.

This passed Spring I was ran off an onramp. As I was merging onto the interstate (going about 30 mph, it was rainy during rush hour morning traffic), a 4 wheeler decided to try to use the inside mini shoulder to pass me on. When I saw him he was about the halfway point of my trailer, so I started to brake realizing he was going to get pinched into 4 lanes of near bumper to bumper 60 mph traffic. As soon as I started inching over to the right side shoulder (the opposite shoulder of him) the four wheeler looked to his left and paniced realizing he couldnt merge, and cut sharply into my side near the tanks, bumping a few inches to my right when I was already on the shoulder. My right steer tire went off the edge / lip of the pavement and sank about 6 inches into the mud, which pulled the whole rig off the road and down a slight hill into some soggy grass. They ended up having to tow me out as my rig was buried pretty deep in mud with a flat steer.

Quick facts

- The four wheeler left the seen and just kept driving

- The responding officer did not cite me, stating that my story made sense and there was paint scuff on my tanks.

- No witnesses had any conflicting stories

- The truck was not totaled, however the mechanic said he would estimate it to be about a 10-15k $ fix because the real axel was slightly bent and a brake air tank snapped off.

- There is camera footage of the accident (although very far distance and grainy, thus they could not pull the vehicles license)

My problem now is that my company whom I worked for 2 years for with an excellent record of safety / no accidents and always on time with freight fired me, and refused to put the accident into their records as non preventable. They put it in as a major D.O.T preventable, even though I was not cited and did everything possible to avoid collision and/or bringing more vehicles into the accident. I filed for unemployment because I can't find a job with this on my record, they faught it and lost, the state citing that the accident did not show me at fault or me being willingly unsafe.

My friends / family say "ah well take the time to find a new career" but the fact is I loved what I do / did, and have no desire to search for a different career field. So what do I do from here? My questions

- Where do I go from here If I want to stay in trucking. Do I file a lawsuit in attempt to get them to re label the accident?

- If I apply at another trucking company, will they automatically see this on my record if it was not cited by the responding officer nor any MVR points issued

- If I have access to an older truck that someone is willing to sell me within my budget, could I get leased on as an O/O anywhere?

 

Greatly appreciated, I seen them out on the road, based out of KY if I remember right. I will definitely check into them, much appreciated.

 

Was gonna try to keep it anonymous

 

I know what you're saying, and respect the input but I would like to mention 2 critical things regarding it.

- I didn't choose to go off-roading. I was actively breaking while riding the right shoulder. His impact bumped me off the pavement lip, which led my right steer to sinking deep in the mud and pulling me off

- My "out" was used, which was the shoulder. He wasn't letting up, and had I kept strait and let him hit it would have 100% led to a multi car accident because this was near the end of the onramp at the merge point. Were talking 4 lanes of highway speed dense city traffic getting slammed into by the 4 wheeler trapped into merging because I am to his right on the onramp.


At the end of the day, there is "the lawyers legal best choice" and the choice that you think will result in the least damage. I don't want someone dead on my conscience, regardless.