Trucker Killed By Storage Shed That Fell From Trailer Being Pulled By Pickup

Why you guys seem to hate Hotshots so much? Hotshots have DOT numbers, run across the same scales, and are held to the same load security regs we are. Not to mention the same terror of freight claims. The guy with the Cummins powered Dodge in his driveway beside his utility trailer would be a far better bet. They’re usually the guys you see on the way home from the rent-all with a 3.5ton excavator tied on with a chunk of dog chain and a piece of rope. Those guys, or the ones with roll-back tow trucks out hauling freight. They’re as bad as home owners, saw one last week thought stretching his winch line out over 2 centreline loaded skids of pavers was good. Or anything with a Farm Plate on it. I’d be pointing at any of those long before a Hotshot operator.

 

Hotshots don’t scare me much. The loons on the large open deck fleets scare me way more. Like the truck steerer person that’s comfortable on the highway with 25 ton of structural on the truck with nothing holding it on there but a couple of lengths of recycled pantyhose. Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s not stupid. Those ####ers scare me way more than the guys with the toy trucks. I wish they’d quit beating the rate out of all my top freight, but they don’t scare me.

 

it does say, "utility trailer", much like the junk they sell at Lowes/Home Depot, for the home owner.

i'm not confident it was a hotshot driver, but rather a stupid homeowner that does not know how to stay away from guard railings.

 

we dont know that it was a legal hotshot operation or some homeowner hauling their own stuff. but if this was a flatbedder hauling oversized and killed someone, they would throw the book at them.. I only hope the same happens here, so its fair across the board.

 

Fair isn’t going to happen. Not when home owners and hobbyists can load a truck and drive it up the road with no regulation, or repercussions when it goes wrong. The local cop isn’t looking to crucify them to start with. We get hammered on because we’re supposed to know better. You could have the same scenario with a Hotshot and a home owner. In the end the home owner may not even get a ticket, maybe pay a little more for his insurance next year. A Hotshot in the same circumstances would get the same treatment we do, five pounds worth of tickets and a court date. Why, they were driving the identical truck? Well, because the Hotshot is hauling “for hire”, has a DOT# and the same COMMERCIAL INSURANCE we do. Now it’s not the local cop anymore, it’s the local cop and the State DOT and the Feds and the ambulance chasers. Two of them chasing statistics and the rest chasing money. That playing field is going to stay tilted heavily to one side for a long time.

 

Sounds like redneck movers thought they could just pick up that old shed at Billie Bob's house and take it over to Aunt Mildred's place.
Yeah it was oversize, but they were only going 2 miles with the thing.
And they knew sheriff John Boy was down at the Chatterbox café having coffee at about that time of the morning so they could probably get away with it....