Rolling over railroad tracks.

Playing devils advocate:

• What if the video showed the driver did not come to a complete stop BEFORE the railroad tracks?
• What if the video showed the truck pulling out into traffic in an unsafe manner?

Looking at the bigger picture, all the large carriers are having both CSA issues and freight volume issues. Going forward I think there will be a lot less leniency on things and any driver identified as "risky" will be shown the door.

 

That sucks. I work at a cryo company and safety has told us to use the stop before the tracks as our stop sign. Same goes for a track that has an intersection light instead of the stop sign.

 

We are allowed to roll thru if the crossing is controlled by a traffic signal as per regulations.

 

Yes! That’s what I meant to say lol

 

You should have escalated this with your saftey manager's direct boss. Not stopping on RR trax with a semi truck is common sense. Your saftey manager should hop in a car and go to the location to see and verify you were in the right. Or if it's hundreds of miles away there has to be another way to check that. Saftey should always have your back until proven otherwise. To just fire somebody without making sure, that's messed up. Although it might be they are looking for any excuse to get rid of drivers in current economic conditions but that still doesn't justify it.

 

There are crossings like that and with stop signs close, along Hwy 80 from Vicksburg to almost Monroe. When I rode trains in another life for a time, we were involved in three crashes along that stretch. I’m sure there are plenty more.

 

As always around here, we're only getting his story. I too, am leery of new accounts posting these stories. And there's the fact that most of us aren't getting unfairly dismissed by a punk kid without most of the building being made aware of how wrong this was. OP seemed to accept it a tad too easily.

 

Wild video of a train crashing into a stalled tractor trailer with driver standing just feet away
I know this spot well. Southwest of Atlanta where the 285 loop hits i85. I ripped the landing gear off of a van trailer here. This guy got stuck. It’s a hard right over the tracks onto a divided highway.

 

Fairburn & Union City Ga.

I used to do A LOT of intermodal work there.

Careful, Drivers: train tracks thru the middle of those towns are high; adjacent streets are low there.

-- L

 

A couple comments on your situation:
Yes, you WERE correct. As a result, you were NOT fired "for cause", so you CAN collect unemployment. If you are looking for a better company, this may be your perfect chance to not just jump on the first job you see. Be picky; don't apply to crap-can companies. Take your time and drag your unemployment out a little, just to annoy the heck out of Knight Transportation! You may even get a partially-paid summer out of it! Just make sure you adhere to the MINIMUM requirements for your state unemployment department.

Secondly, if you want to put the screws to Knight, you could (and probably should..) make a complaint to the state department of labor. At least that will cost them some money. Maybe get your fleet manager in trouble; hopefully cost them a good sized fine as well...

Thirdly (and this is only if you REALLY want to rake them over the coals..), you can sue them. Wait for the Labor department complaint get finished, then contact a labor attorney, give him the info, and see if you have a case. With a desired labor department file, you probably won't even need to pay a retainer (but only AFTER the labor department investigation is finished). If you unemployment period lasted a while, you could claim that as damages....