Running illegal + accident = jail?

You may or may not be looking at jail time. Would depend on severity of accident. You bend someones bumper and no one is hurt you will probably be fined and put Out of Service. Cause major damage/injury/death and you should be jailed for being arrogant and stupid. I have run illegal for short periods. And I was very careful not to get into any situations. And it was still very stupid on my part. We all stretch the rules some but remember you can be out in a heartbeat if you violate the wrong ones.

 

The problem is that if a driver refuses it can gouge the hell out of his record as everything from a service failure to insubordination to getting fired and everything in between. I'd leave and find a new gig before I'd refuse unless it is safety related.

 

You're looking at a minimum 1 year license suspension and if you kill someone you are almost guaranteed a little 7' x 9' room with Bubba.

Injuries or death you are looking to be sued for everything you got.

Driving 15 over the speed limit at the officer's discretion can be charge with reckless driving which again at the officer's discretion can be an arrestable offense.

There's a few things that can send you up river including hauling drugs or something else illegal in that state. There's a fairly recent article about a driver busted in NY just for carrying a gun.

 

Prison to me is working for a bottom feeder outfit for .26 miles and having to be led around by my ear from some over zelous dispatcher that never left his home town...Then Working 4 weeks on the road and 2 off and backagain..

I will take to 3-9 in the State Penn anyday over that chitty lifestyle...

 

There is an instance where 'out of hours' is actually worse than 'just' out of hours...

 

Prisons are overcrowded.They are letting the hardoned ones back on the streets...Truck driver will not go to prison unless he kills a Politicians Family Member...

 

There was a truck driver sleeping on the rest area get off ramp in OH. He was the last truck about halfway back the ramp. A drunk thought that was the highway and run up under the back of his trailer. I was across the interstate in the other rest area. I saw them put him in handcuffs and put him in the back of the patrol car. I never heard the outcome of that one but I assumed they got him for illegally parking on the ramp and probably involuntary manslaughter. They'll turn a raw deal on a truck driver in a heartbeat if he doesn't have his ducks in a row.

 

Not only are you opening yourself to criminal laws, you're also opening yourself up to major lawsuits. Of course, some of those running illegal don't have insurance either......

After being involved in a fatal accident, (A car crossed the centerline and ran into me.), you want to make sure your ducks are in a row. Mine were, the only thing puzzling at first was they couldn't find my logbook, which I knew was on the dash where I always put it, when we finally found it, it was stuck under the dash by the fan and had to be pulled out. I told the Traffic Investigator exactly when I went off duty the previous Wednesday and when I went on duty that Sunday, exactly when I left the distribution center and exactly when the truck was on it's side, wrecked.

 

Even if you are 100% Legal,they are still coming with Lawsuits...It is the new world we live in..