Prevantable accidents???

Admit to nothing. If there is a deer strike, you didn't hit the deer, the deer hit you. That's all you say, nothing else. Only a terrible carrier will call a deer strike preventable.

 

No worries driver Canadian carriers have no standards nowadays .. short of running over the owners family .. every one our company fired you see the next week tooling down the road it seems..if it's not on your drivers abstract odds are your golden

 

Unless it ran into your side, it was preventable. You are supposed to be driving at a speed in which you can stop within the distance of your headlights.

 

So much ignorance in this comment.

 

Let me guess, your CDL was grandfathered? Anyone who has had to take a CDL written test to get their permit for the last 5 years has to answer this question.

 

Problem is that deer don't know the "go slow enough so that you can stop within the distance of your headlights" rule. Those deer jump out at various distances. No matter how slow you are going a deer can jump out in front of you. So no, it's not always a preventable. That's where the ignorance comes into play.

 

What are you talking about? The distance of your headlights? Who told you that? So if i run ultra hd's i can go faster? Ifin my lenses are a little dirty i must go slower? Seriously... what does that mean?

The average headlight is something like 160' the accepted distance for a semi at 65 to stop is over 500 ft....

 

There are 3 "databases" where data relative to driving might be kept. I have a serious doubt if it matters much if said accident is in Canada or the US. These databases are 1. your MVR. 2. Insurance company database. and 3. DAC/Hireright. Because no 2 "preventable's" are alike your accident might get added to all 3 or it might not find its way to any of them. I am assuming you are referring to hitting something in your yard with a CMV and if so does said CMV belong to you? So generally speaking if you hit anything either on public or private property and this gets reported it will be listed as a preventable.

On the subject of deer. If you drive for a company that is so Mickey Mouse that they charge you with a preventable over a #### deer you might want to look at a change. In my case I was not charged with a preventable but I also had deer guts all in the hood of my tractor. Was it preventable, NO it was not. Was it considered an incident? Yes it was. A preventable accident by definition should be an accident YOU as a driver could have/should have prevented. How can you prevent a deer strike especially at 3 AM in the morning and a deer comes from your side not front? The deer that I hit was flying from my left to my right and jumped out in front of me. There was NOTHING I could do short of not driving that morning to prevent that strike. A deer in this situation is a ROAD HAZARD. I had a car pickup a rock and sling it up and hit my windshield back in the 90s. Again it was a road hazard listed as an incident.

My final point is way to many drivers have an innate fear of initiating a meeting with someone in their safety dept. While it is true that safety person's job is to stay in a truckers backside this does not mean that you should fear them. You hit a deer or other road hazard call them ASAP. tell your FM/dispatcher you need to get into a terminal ASAP. When you do get to a terminal get in to see safety as soon as you can. Take photo's and lay out your case. One of the problems the average carrier safety dept has is a driver leaves them nothing to work with. A friend of mine works in the Safety dept of a Nebraska Based carrier. I speak to this person several times a week and we are Facebook friends. This person told me several months ago they had to fire a driver. For no other reason then said driver refused to come see safety to be reminded of the company rules as it deals with HOS. The driver just would not go and rather just stay at home and not leave when dispatched. Some might call it quitting but this case was considered termination. You young drivers please don't fear safety.

 

Some carriers who offer a "safety bonus" are INSANE about what they call preventable, because the safety depts main job is to avoid paying the bonus.

I picked up a trailer in Laredo, TX who's tires were on the edge. Nursed it all the way to Spokane to save the company money and two months later get written up for "equipment abuse" for worn tires and rusty rims.

Told them to put it all in writing so my lawyer could look at it and said "equipment abuse" magically went away.