Only one issue I have with the company

Ok, I had over 90k safe miles with this said company. I also have a clean record until this company. I have asthma.

I had an asthma attack, hit a sign, and was fired over it. They ruined my DAC over it about an unsatisfactory safety record and telling other companies I and a careless and reckless driver.

As for the reports, I never sped, I drove 55 or 60. I had an APU so I never idled.

I was always on time for loads.

My DMV report shows I never had a ticket in my life. I also never had a parking ticket in my life.

I never had a service failure, never found a fault in my level 1 inspections.

I ran on average 3200 miles a week and was one of the top milers with the top mpg in the company. On average I took home 1000-1200 a week and I was a company driver.

Until I had an asthma attack on a narrow strip of 2 lane backroads of a US Highway with no shoulder on either side and a 4 foot ditch on each side, Truck never rolled. I kept it from doing that.

I hit a sign. I was to drive to Joplin. Went to Safety, and I was fired.

Fine, whatever, you discharged me for a policy violation. I could go elsewhere. But that's not what the DAC reports said. It said I was let go for an unsatisfactory safety record. Sorry, I just got a nice safety bonus a week before. And I never had another incident like this either.

The DOT report backed me. I was never ticketed. I did everything. I called my fleet manager. Then I called the police. I followed all policies and procedures.

The DOT officer determined I was not on drugs, out of hours, or anything of that nature. I'm pretty straight laced about all that. The DOT officer did not issue me any citation. Determined the accident was caused by a medical emergency.

I'm not done here, as I said, my DAC was ruined. I couldn't drive again. Nobody was taking me. I was denied unemployment, I appealed and won it. Conway appealed my appeal. I got my DAC repaired with the evidence I presented to them. It now says discharged. Nothing else. I also found out recently what the work verifications have been given to companies I'm applying to. I saw the paper, and it's going to the labor board on charges of libel and conduct unbecoming. You do not lie to these companies. The company I just got signed on by actually listened to my story, saw my evidence. And agreed that Conway was doing this and told me some lawyers to contact. The Safety Director here is doing this for me. Of a company that had originally considered me ineligible to hire. That is giving me a chance to prove myself again after being unemployed for 6 months because of Conway's trick with what they were doing.

As I said, I loved Conway. It was a great company, until they saw fit to try and destroy my life because I have asthma and had an asthma attack while driving down a lonely hilly 2 lane US highway in the middle of nowhere.

 

Well my only question is what happens next time you have "an asthma attack while driving down a lonely hilly 2 lane US highway in the middle of nowhere"?

 

Hmmmm would love to hear the "Paul Harvey" edition of this,but probably wont,,,just another case of not following company policy,,leaving the roadway and striking a sign,,might not sound like much,but if you have a propensity of having "asthma attack" and cant control a vehicle of this size you might want to rethink a few things,like,,,

1.Should have posted this under"Bad Companies"
2.Anything that starts with "I never",,well you did thats it,I guess with all the electronics in the truck they(Conway) is literally just making all this up
3.Im not sure but maybe Conway had that sign put just in your way
4.What about the "what-ifs",like what-if here was someone standing beside sign,etc..

Good luck in your future,get your problem under control before you run over a pedestrian and hopefully you will have a long a fruitful career with no other incidents

 

I know, I've had nightmares about the what ifs.

I have always had asthma. Only way it gets under control is from using an inhaler. I have had asthma attacks while driving before. It was a medical incident, not what the company was saying I had a preventable accident. If Conway were to say that, I'd have no problems. If they were only to say yes I worked there, it'd be no problems. The verifications they were saying to these other companies were scathing reports about anything that was far from the truth.

If having a medical incident is against company policy, what the heck isn't against it?

As I said, it was my only issue with Conway. I love the company. My fleet manager was awesome. I loved the open door policy it has. I had a good mileage with the company. It was just this that happened. And one incident = discharge? Fine. But please, be truthful in the report. A medical incident does not = reckless, careless, or unsafe. Try and put a person that has a heart attack in my shoes instead. And tell him he's fired because he had a heart attack and hit a sign.

I'm glad all I did was hit a sign. It could have been much much worse. I could have easily hit a person instead. I could have rolled the truck and killed myself. There's many could have beens and I have had many nightmares about it. I'm just glad that's all that's happened instead.

 

I think it was careless of you NOT to have your inhaler at a arms reach thats for sure. So ConWay weigh the pros and cons of having you and decided to let you go. You could have easily rolled the truck but they didnt stick around to find out. As far as your Dac Im glad you took care of it. But try to put yourself in ConWays shoes for a min and you will see you were careless. Glad everything worked out in the end now wear your inhaler around your freakin neck so you dont fumble for it next time and roll the truck please.

 

Just a few things and I see both business owner and employee side so I'm not making judgements or slandering

A) accident caused by medical condition is grounds for insurance companies to deem you "uninsurable" which could be an issue
B) DOT doesn't like to see this sort of thing so I'm surprised no letter was sent about suspending your medical card (like those found to have I controlled blood sugar or pressure) and you would then need to get a doc to sign off your good to go with your condition P.S.- I need to do this for hearing in my right ear EVERYTIME it's no biggie
C) I Would doubt the company is sending "scathing" reports of the false nature. Due to this having been done before nearly all large companies now only give out the following ;Dates of employment, Title of the employed, Eligibility for re-hire of previous employee. Literally the paper would say "Hunny bunny worked for Con-way form xx/xx/xxxx-xx/xx/xxxx as a company driver and is(n't) eligible for rehire" that is what is now taught in most HR courses as a CYA. If they did say more then that when asked strictly for employment verification then enjoy the new sports car, boat, and house they buy you because you will undoubtably win in court, but I'm thinking you might be embellishing a bit.

If I had to give you my 2 cents it's probably an issue with insurers deeming you high risk or companies seeing you are not eligible for re-hire that is doing it, again thats assuming you are indeed not eligble for rehire.

 

I always had my inhaler in a cup holder which was within arm's reach. And I know what you're saying about what conway thought about, but is it right to go and tell me it's a policy violation, then tell DAC, unemployment, and other companies that I was such a horrible driver and all? Is it right to punish me that thoroughly? That's what bothers me about the entire affair. It's that not only they let me go, but to nearly ruin me in the process. I don't know why they did it, but they did. And having 6 months unemployment without collecting unemployment really hurt me. I lived, I had money saved to pay rent, utilities, food, and other things for an entire year, but in the meantime I had no income at all to fall back on.

That's what I'm getting at. It's not fair. I wasn't speeding, doing drugs, or anything illegal. It was an accident, and even the best of us will have had something, anything, happen in their time driving. Other than that I have never had anything else happen to me. So instead of yes, she worked here, they said instead reckless, careless, and unsafe. No, I was unsatisfactory to ConWay, I wasn't out looking to have an accident. I wasn't running unneeded risks. I also wasn't doing anything wrong. So other companies I would normally qualify for saw the verification from ConWay said, "No I don't want her and I don't want to talk to her to hear her side either." DMV is spotless, CSA score is spotless, DAC shows nothing other than discharged now, but the verification from the company says otherwise.

 

A&B) Chronic Asthma would be grounds for termination of a medical card and insurance companies don't like to see that kind of thing. I however, have asthma, not chronic asthma. I had my DOT physical redone and the Dr cleared me.

C) No, this is what the report says: Unsatisfactory Safety Record, Policy Violation, section ##, item ##. Preventable Accident, 1. DOT recordable accident, 0. Action code 935.

Translation needed?

 

Well after seeing that report in the reply to (C) then I would say don't waste your time with a lawyer, by all means get a free consultation but their statement is indeed a statement of fact set up the way it is intentionally for easy litigation wins

"Unsatisfactory Safety Record"-to them a crash is unsatisfactory so FACT

"Policy Violation, section ##, item ##"- FACT, they wrote their own policies

"Preventable Accident, 1"- FACT properly controlled asthma would have prevented it ( tough being on the road stale air, dust, fumes etc) as well as effective counter measures in the event of a related emergency(inhaler)

"DOT recordable accident, 0"-FACT according to both you and the report

"Action code 935"FACT- we can safely assume that is the internal code for termination

They are spreading no "intentionally malicious" false statements all their statements are based in fact and are agreed to be fact by you in this forum
1) you had a wreck
2)its against policy to crash
3) it was preventable to the company
4)DOT said not at fault
5) you were terminated

Life isn't fair but as an adult you should know that, I see where your coming from.