Truck Driving Jobs

evertruckerr · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 336 Location: Wilmington, NC

As a new driver, bright eyed and bushy tailed, it?s very easy to be over taken by the thrill of driving a Big Truck. Please remember just that. It is a VERY big truck and demands the utmost respect and immense responsibilities. I have been fortunate that I have never had an accident in my 10 years out here. That is not to say that I have not had my share of close calls. Luck plays a hand it that, but driving safe is not an accident (wow, that?s original), it?s a commitment. Please take a look at some of these pictures, ESPECIALLY THE ONES YOU WILL FIND UNDER THE TAILGATE LINK.

Drive Safe

http://www.truckcrash.com/index.html

"Truckers need to learn, from day one, that the job is chalk-full of hazards. They should understand that danger lurks around every corner.

A few drivers go into it with eyes wide open, never forgetting that the job is a constant series of life or death decisions.

Others don't seem to give one flying fig for anyone but themselves. For whatever reason, whether they imagine themselves as living in an episode of Smoky and The Bandit, or if they have just been watching too much NASCAR on Sundays, too many truckers fail to implement even the most basic safety techniques, putting themselves (and others) in the gravest danger.

The attitude seems to be that if there is a corner to be cut without getting caught, well that's the name of the game. They have fallen into that penny wise, pound foolish trap of squeezing as much money (miles, hours, loads, etc.) out of the day as possible, and if someone gets hurt along the way, well, it's too bad for them. In other words, "Hooray for me and the rest of y'all can go straight to the hot place."

Actually, most of us truckers are somewhere in the middle. We neither act recklessly, nor do we do everything possible to avoid damaging stuff and hurting people. Most of us care about safety, but cut a few corners here and there. We do our jobs pretty safely, but we could be a hair more careful.

Simply put, there is room for improvement.

So, how far should a trucker go to preserve the life of another human being? Should he just do whatever is legally required and no more? Or, at the other end of the curve, should he sacrifice his own life to save a stranger's? It's a tough question, but one that each driver needs to consider before inserting the key into the ignition."

BanditsCousin · Joined: 05 Jun 2004 Posts: 3301 Location: Chicago, IL

I voted none, as I'e never seen any occur. I have seen flipped/crashed trucks where drivers have died though. Maybe I put the wrong answer :?

Windwalker · Joined: 22 Oct 2005 Posts: 2959 Location: Holiday, FL

One of the ones I got to see, I had been talking to the driver, and got no indication of anything wrong. Suddenly he went quiet, then took out the support for an overpass. Nothing left of him, and not much more of the truck. Traffic was re-routed off the ramps and back on because of the overpass lying down on the hiway.

Blacksheep · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:59 pm Post subject:

A couple of weeks ago I was the second one to a fatal crash ( two kids & grand ma) Yellow Freight rear ended a mini-van on the Indiana toll road ( mm107).
Three bodies thrown from the van, and the run over by an ABF set of triples.
One of the most horrific things I've every seen, and I've seen some stuff in my 25+ years out here.
I still see that in my mind, I cried for those kids. :cry:

Random_Facts · Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 6:49 pm Post subject:

Blacksheep wrote: A couple of weeks ago I was the second one to a fatal crash ( two kids & grand ma) Yellow Freight rear ended a mini-van on the Indiana toll road ( mm107).
Three bodies thrown from the van, and the run over by an ABF set of triples.
One of the most horrific things I've every seen, and I've seen some stuff in my 25+ years out here.
I still see that in my mind, I cried for those kids. :cry:

How Tragic =(

Useless · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 3176 Location: Canyon Lake, Tx.

I really can't say for sure. When I began training with my mentor/trainer'finisher, we ran hard as a team from Day One, (around 7,000+ miles my first week) and I know that I would sometimes see two T/T's "Driver's Side Down" in a day.

Who lived?? Who didn't??

Who knows!!!

Orangetxguy · Joined: 23 Jan 2007 Posts: 1656

Are you asking about accidents where only a truckdriver was killed?

The most horrific fatalities I have ever seen involving a truck, was a backing accident at a dock in El Reno Ok...two guys standing with their backs to the yard were pinned against the dock by a stakebed truck backing up to the dock. April 1982. I was running, waving my arms and screaming at the top of my lungs...they (at the dock)didn't turn around, and the guy driving the stake bed didn't even look at me. Robert and Paul lived for about 20 minutes.

Most horrific car fatality was in August 1995, SB I-5 (159mm??)along Boeing Field in Seattle. I-5 through there was a contruction nightmare, with no shoulder through the zone. A Volvo station wagon was broke down in the right lane, about 300 yards short of the jersey barrier. The guy driving the station wagon stepped out of his car as I was approaching in the far left lane..( I moved when I saw his flashers going, about 1/2 mile before I got there). The guy stepped out, turned towards the car about to hit him, then squatted down on his haunches....just as the Toyota hit him. His wife and kids were watching as well. His car got hit just after I passed it by. I was in a loaded tanker. Called 911, gave them the location of the accident, took the next available offramp and waited at a Mobil station, for a Trooper .....me in an ARCO truck. I ended my night right there. One week later, there was a 6 foot shoulder on both sides of the construction zone.

I can remember both accidents as clear as if they happened today.

flood · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 588 Location: tennesse

the one that still will wake me in a cold sweet. one nite 1:30 am in 2002 going north in US 231 10ml north of lebanon, tn. as i came over a hill i saw a P U truck (dodge ram) flipping in the air. (he had crossed the center line and hit a PFG truck head on) i was the first to get to the PU driver. but with a head on speed of over 100mph (PFG doing 55mph + PU doing 55+ when the air bag opened it was sticking out his back behind him.

i've seen others but that one is the one that i will never forget.

uglymutt · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:33 am Post subject:

I see a truck upside down or ripped open and ontop of cars everyday I am out here, that is sad, I am in chicago today and saw one crash coming here, looked like driver was ripped open along with is truck, you think they would learn from all this... take it slow and easy, my 65 mph truck can kill just as easy as a 90mph truck...

coastie · Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 418 Location: Elberton, Ga

1997 = I had a car play a game with me in Atlanta. I ended up with my cab going side ways. I did not see but heard about it while I was getting loaded. The next Trucker they did it to, was not so lucky..

coastie · Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 418 Location: Elberton, Ga

Blacksheep wrote: A couple of weeks ago I was the second one to a fatal crash ( two kids & grand ma) Yellow Freight rear ended a mini-van on the Indiana toll road ( mm107).
Three bodies thrown from the van, and the run over by an ABF set of triples.
One of the most horrific things I've every seen, and I've seen some stuff in my 25+ years out here.
I still see that in my mind, I cried for those kids. :cry:

That is hard to take. While I was in the Service, my ship was involved in Operation Picket Fence. Our mission Pickup Cubans on rafts coming to America. We picked up over a 1000 per Ship out there a week, but we were not perfect, we did miss some. On our way back to our home port we found a raft with a Mother and baby onboard off of NC. 12 years later, it still brings tears.

Malaki86 · Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 2082 Location: West Virginia

My first day in a truck (after school) was when I saw my 1st real truck wreck. I was with another driver catching a ride from Tulsa to Ohio to meet up with my trainer. We came across an accident where the truck had lost control in the rain and started sliding. The tractor ended up being wrapped literally around the concrete base of a light pole in the median. The drivers door was against the concrete and the front tire was touching the rear drive tire.

Seeing that on my first day out really, really got to me. I lasted one week because of being shook up over it. It was about 3 years before I could get back into a tractor trailer (drove 6 + 10 wheelers in that time).

inmate1577 · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 718

Well after driving a tow truck for 10 years, I saw alot of fatalities. Decapitations, people thrown the windshield, homicides, suicides, people who die in their vehicle while it is parked, some guy who had been murdered and stuffed into a trunk and left there for 2 weeks before someone noticed the strange smell coming from this abandoned car, etc etc etc...
I never lost a minutes sleep over it, never had nightmares etc. The first load I took , I got stuck in traffic for a "yellow sheet special" in Tenn.
A local dump driver t-boned a Toyota Corolla on a rural highway.

It didnt faze me at all. Someone once asked me how I deal with seeing people who have died as a result of a traffic accident. I told them, I dont deal with it, because there is nothing to deal with. My job is to recover the vehicle and open the road, not stop and stare at a corpse so consequently, my mind is in work mode, not spectator mode and so I never saw anything other than a car that needed to be removed.

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