Non Preventable Incident

I was pulling a wind blade and a woman came down an on ramp into the side of beam of the trailer. She blew a yield sign. She even told the police that she had nowhere to go. They gave her a ticket.

Would you believe a year later, she tried to sue? Got a call from Safety and they did a conference call with the company lawyers. And yes, I was named on the suit. So was the manufacturer of the wind blade. I just made a statement about what happened, answered some questions, and they squashed it. Never heard anything else about it.

 

This reminds me of the non preventable accident I was in April of last year. Driver of a Chevy Cavalier drifted out of his lane and hit the tandem axles on my trailer as I was passing him,the impact knocked him into the Jersey barrier,which he ricocheted off of,hit the tandems again,knocking the front axle out of alignment in which he almost went under but he ended up spinning out on I-95 near Darien,Connecticut. Based on both witnesses testimony on my behalf and the traffic cameras posted along I-95 CT State Police and my company both stated I wasn’t at fault. The other driver’s insurance company (State Farm) tried a couple of times to contact me about the my truck’s registration and insurance (which they should’ve already had that info from my employer since they own the truck). Basically they were “fishing”. In the end State Farm ended up paying for the repairs to the trailer.

 

Btw, your son did exactly the right thing by maintaining his lane. Well done. Sounds like daddy believes his little princess over the highway patrol and the evidence.

 

probably was on the phone

 

Ive been sued twice before in my life time related to trucking accidents.

First I took out a car in DC NE near the National Cathedral where there is a tight series of curves we call the Esses. It's really dangerous to go there because of aggression and lane changes that happen through there. Anyway. This one granny and her late 70's chevy was moving along in her entrance ramp onto the highway around 7:20 eastern local time with rush hour cranking up and westbound stopped and gridlocked. We passed her ramp and her and noticed that she cut across two lanes and settled. The third curve came up and no chevy. Hmm...

I looked everywhere (Not everywhere enough, I was a cabover with 4 special mirriors over the right steer wheel area which is a blind spot. And felt no one was in that lane next to me so I moved over. Thumped her pretty good at the back door Surprised!!!! and her car came across my bumper with two souls inside at 50. So I managed to make the stop with the semi truck with a car that could have been spun off, crushed under me or something else. I managed to hold that car on my steel bumper. (Long live steel, no plastic crap)

Anyway. Police wrote a 40 dollar ticket against me for failure to safely lane change. And that was that. Car was scrapped. They were scared but unhurt.

A few months later lawsuit came in. Judge in Rockville got involved via mail as I submitted to him my situation. (Unemployed, BK etc. and because of that accident I can forget about being hired for OTR work for three years at least in the industry. So the Class A has no value to me or anyone. Minimum wage anyone? It will take a thousand years to buy her a new chevy)

The Judge excused me as a defendant and had the insurance people pay the lady her new car that she demanded. And that was that. It only took a year to get through that.

The second lawsuit involves a company with security. They protect the truck docking by banning everyone else until I get docked in with my 18 wheeler. A worker running late (*For the third time for sure to be fired...) blew past the gaurds and allowed himself to get hit by my right hand drives as I angled back into the dock. Come to find out he put the car and it's door where his shoulder was right where the tire got to him. THUMP. engine stalls Im sitting there WTF. Gaurds are yelling. Employer starts yelling. Fired him.

3 months later I was served with a suit against me for 66,000 dollars (Essentially the value of this man's row home at that time) the trucking company had a awesome lawyer in Baltimore that was part of the shipping yards and war industry long ago with much experience with industry accidents. We went down to give a deposition. I said what happened on my end then shut up.

My lawyer had evidence this particular person doctor shopped for narcotics riding in his sprained shoulder trying to make it look like a joint failure or some grotesque silly claim. And other evidence of various manuvering designed to work the system. His own lawyer when presented with this client's own problems not disclosed until deposition threw the entire suing out the window. There is no credibility when a drug seeker one who knew his employers rules, had a history of being late and so on etc creating the sitaution for himself with me as the fall guy... the entire case was essentially laughed out of that particular room and did not proceed any further. It's amazing when you see hardened lawyers lean on the table laughing at how bad this lawsuer client really is.... Remember narcotic shopping over something that is not a injury much in something like that makes it look really really bad. And everyone laughed him out of there.

That was the end of that episode. That business is still loading butter for hunts point (Shedds Spread Country Crock) and the same gaurds are still protecting the dock area. No one is allowed through when trucks are docking or leaving.

Regarding NY. I hit yet another car with the right Steer on the long island expressway, he moved, I moved. All I needed was 8 feet in the worst grid lock. He gave me 6 feet not 8 and I thumped him with the right steer. 800 dollars in damage roughly to him.

Only this time he came out of the car, big buff fella identified himself as a Federal Agent ATF. That would be the story of my life running into suits with my cabover. This one was not a lawsuing, but a quiet check cut and sent to ATF for that man's company car and a little extra for beer or something for him. It was a difficult morning all around.

That is one reason I stopped running cabovers. JBH put me back into a cabover despite my protests (I should have quit and gone home from orientation...) and I took out yet another vehicle in St Louis. The vehicle itself was fine. But the 2000 dollar computer behind the body panel in the work bed was damaged. That was a wasteful night all around. JBH sent a man with authority to inspect me, question me, go over my stuff. And weigh if I should be fired there and then and find my own way home. He did not fire me. I told him about my protests about this 83 cabover when there are 50 century midroofs sitting in our home yard not assigned to anyone. And so vehicle number four.

The man took his check offered to him for the 2000 dollar computer, 500 for the body panel and another 500 for his time dealing with this aggravation on the spot that was that. (I quit very soon after. This cabover stuff is quite enough of that.)

The real issues was my body breaking down finally after 20 years of never going to a doctor unless I absolutely had to at the ER somewhere. The extent of the medical disability, damage and surgeries that would be required and still ongoing 18 years later is quite something. I was a very sick trucker in terms of a body that was torn up and not up to the job anymore in 2001. So that's was that for me.

 

You've gotta cover your ### out there today with a dash cam. At least one pointed dead ahead at all times, with a big memory card for lots of videos. I used it once to see justice was done. Fatal accident in Chatanooga. Driver claimed to the police he was shoved off the road by another car. Nope. He fell asleep and fell of that road. Too bad his passenger got hit in the head by the guard rail that went through the windshield and out the back like a dragon's tail.
That's quite a video to re-watch.

 

This is a perfect example of why insurance is so expensive for trucking companies, especially owner operators. There are law firms that do nothing else but sue trucking companies. They do it because they know that 9 times out of 10, the insurance carrier for the trucking company will settle before going to trial. Mounting a legal defense against a lawsuit can cost tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. Settling is a way for the insurance carrier to avoid those costs, but we all pay for it in the form of much higher premiums.

I was sued 8 years ago for an accident my daughter was involved in while driving my truck that wasn't her fault, but I had the insurance coverage with high limits. They sued my insurance company (which rolled over and settled the first week) and I fought them with my own lawyers and took it to trial. They won, and I lost most of my retirement that took me 30 years to build. Jury trials and financial awards have little to do with proving guilt or innocence. It only proves who has the best attorney.

 

To think there are guys out there who STILL drive 18 wheels with no dash cam. And they drive back east or in LA. Dangerous, man. They're just asking for it.

 

In this case a driver cam would not have helped except to prove he kept his lane.

As for the op, I would not worry. It's just an ambulance chasing lawyer trying to get a settlement from the company. The company may settle, but they would be stupid to.