Police: Semi driver NOT to blame for Death on I-35/80 was suicide

best post ever

 

What an unfortunate incident, and hopefully the driver isn't too traumatized by it. Just remember there are alot of wackos out there! + = X(

 

I remember yrs ago, a guy was sitting on the edge of a highway over pass, tossing rocks in the road. I learned from a friend of mine who is a fire fighter, that he was timing, how long it took for a car and truck to pass.. He was going to jump when a truck was about to go under.. Luckily they grabbed him before he could do it..

 

I had an oversize load hauler, tell me he had a 4 wheeler come flying by, hit the shoulder jumped out of the car, and ran out in front of him, killing the man, he still drivers but hates when a 4 wheeler hits the shoulder, cause u never know what state of mind they are in,,,,

 

I was working for Greyhound at the terminal in Santa Barbara,Ca. when one of our drivers ran over a pedrestian. She was a homeless woman known for jaywalking which is excatly what she did. It was also dark and my best guess she stepped in the Bus's blindspot and I don't know if it was sucide. Driver didn't know he hit someone and thought he had hit a bump in the road,so he kept going till someone flagged him down. The driver was not faulted, but he was really messed up by it and I never saw him again. I saw the remains of the woman and lets say it was gruesome. Most drivers do not return to driving after something like that.This has caused me to try to be as alert as possilbe when people are walking around the truck especially when I'm in a town, at a dock, or a T/S. What really surprises to see people on cell phones walking in the T/S's parking lot and the outside of docks,then get mad when someone honks a horn to let them know they are about to walk into something.

 

Wouldnt matter if you swerved or not. If you have a fatality whether at fault or not you will be hard pressed to get a job any place else. Imagine the crap youd have to go through with prospective companies and dac on that one.

 

I may have posted this before. I had a buddy who killed himself. Tony Sharpe. I was the NCOIC of the casket team. We just came back from Desert Storm 1990. He stepped in front of a semi on I-69 in Anderson IN. I talked to the State Trooper. No alcohol in his system. Trooper told me in cases like that you can smell the alcohol in the blood at the scene. Tests revealed he was sober. Why did he do it? This has haunted me as a driver and friend. Why did he not call me over his problems.

I have never gotten over this. We rehearsed the funeral a bunch of times. When it came to the detail I could not give the commands. My voice was shaking. The casket detail reacted on the practice we had done. To this day I hear taps and my eyes water. Even before I deployed into a combat zone taps always messed with my head.

I watch a movie or hear it and I evade people because tears are in my eyes. I have seen a lot of death, but can't shake the sounds of taps. My wife does not even know that taps effects me that way. She was at the funeral. She knew tony. I told her not to look at the body in the casket. Open casket per his mother. His head was full of putty for reconstruction. Had on white gloves and the embalming fluid was seeping through the gloves.

To this day if I am watching a movie with my wife I do not let her see my eyes if I hear taps. I am fighting back the tears.

 

Several yrs ago,the same thing happened on Rt 24 in Brockton Ma. A patient from the nearby V.A. stepped out in front of a semi.I heard that the driver was never the same afterwards.

 

Well, suicide is one of the most selfish acts a person can commit so thats what happens!