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dlasaine · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 15

i was in a little town in ohio. i was lost and was on a road i couldn't turn around in. i found an area to do so and there was no traffic. well, i start to turn around. i stopped an checked again for traffic. so i continued. guess what? someone tried cutting behind me and i didn't see them until i saw my i.c.c. bar scrapping their rear quarter panel.

so, i get a ticket for "no u-turn" and get fired from my job i just started.

crst won't touch me for three years, j.b. hunt won't touch me for 3-6 months.

i am so friggin depressed now. i had a squeaky clean record for a whole year and finally got out of the low level trucking companies so i could be home with my family. now i have to go back to where i left and be out on the road for weeks at a time. dammit, i am so mad at myself.

any words of comfort?

GMAN · Joined: 13 Feb 2005 Posts: 9881 Location: Tennessee

If you haven't yet paid the ticket, you may be able to get a lawyer to fight it and perhaps plead it down to a lesser offense or get it dismissed altogether. You really need to protect your CDL. You may just need to wait it out and use this as a learning experience. Unfortunately, cars will run in back of you while backing or try to pass when making a right hand turn. There isn't an IQ test for obtaining a driver's license. How long have you been driving?

cordial98 · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 15 Location: Orient, Ohio

I learned the hard way about what people will do, back in 92 I was in Cleveland Oh, and while moving around in a grocery store parking lot I watched a guy drive right into my trailer tires. Guess he couldn't see the big orange truck they were attached to. That cost me a suspended license, which leads to the second learning lessen, always mail your proof of insurance by certified mail. The state of Ohio said they never received anything and just suspended not questions or notification.

Sorry for the long story but just cya and double check everything to make sure you protect the cdl.

yoopr · Joined: 01 Dec 2004 Posts: 12865

sorry it happened. Like GMAN said-Get a lawyer and see what he/she can do for you.

dlasaine · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 15

yeah, i'd like to get one, but i have no money to do so. i caled the clerks office and they said i can mail in a payment and i will get two points on my record.

i'm so disgusted right now. my wife is despondent. we were planning to refinance the house, move to a house she wanted (the house we live in wa mine and my ex's), and look for a local job. i have been driving over the road now for a year, and have missed either other, and left her raising my kids. now this has happened. i can go back to my old employer where i never really quit from and don't say anything about it.

but, then it is a fed. reg. i report it to my employer, whom i was not driving their truck. but when they find out i am sure they will fire me. but if i tell them now, they will fire me. i can't win here. if something happened to me on the road while driving their truck and i didn't say anything, i will be in a much bigger fire than i am in now.

this just keeps compiling. now my wife is talking about getting a divorce because she is so depressed over all this. a whole year of having no husband (we just got married and spent my first anniversary with her at home and me in a crst truck)

Uturn2001 · Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:30 pm Post subject:

Before you go and get your undies all in a tear jerking wad why dont you get off your pity pot and start applying to all sorts of companies. There are hundreds, hell thousands of trucking companies out there, many of them looking for drivers and there are many who have regional runs that will get you home every week and if you live along a major freight route you might even make it home once in a while through the week.

What ever you do, do not lie about your driving and/or work record. This is a sure fire way to not get hired or not to get fired once the truth comes out.

bigtimba · Joined: 10 Sep 2006 Posts: 217

. . . you don't have a job . . you ain't got no money . . throw yourself on the mercy of the court. Tell the judge you believe you have a defense but you can't afford a lawyer. Judges understand. They were (are) all lawyers and they don't feel the community is being properly represented unless you have a lawyer. Be humble, be sincere and be honest. U turn laws are vague, at best. Your CDL IS your lively-hood and the judge needs to hear it from you.

golfhobo · Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:12 pm Post subject:

Were there any "no U-turn" signs? Were there any "no passing" signs? Get pictures of the area, and get a lawyer.

Is your trailer clearly marked with warning of wide turns?

Like Gman said, protect your CDL. Getting a lesser offense, MAY save you from a "preventable."

Keep your chin up. As for your wife.... I don't know. Sounds like a lack of committment. Maybe y'all need to have a talk.... one you should have had earlier.

There are always options. Look into them... and tell her you are doing so to save the marriage.

Other than that, I would say... don't EVER go down a road you aren't sure of again. And always 'consider' the swing of your trailer. Get out and LOOK, if you have any questions. But, I seriously don't think you saw the situation as a hazard. 4wheelers are nothing but PESTS!

Best of luck to ya! Let us know how it turns out!

Flatspot · Joined: 25 Sep 2006 Posts: 41

As a driver-trainee, I was headed in to The Gorge (I-40 in Tennessee-North Carolina) and my trainer didn't give me any warning about speed linits and the left lane restriction). I had a string of coal barges in the right lane, didn't see the speed limit change sign. When I finished the passing manover, I moved to the right lane. State bear nailed me for 59 in a 50 zone, and lane violation. The last sign I saw said "speed limit 60".

I reported the ticket to my employer. They said "bring the ticket to us, we'll see it gets paid".

12 months later, I'm in a DOT inspection in Missouri, and I get nailed for suspended CDL (I didn't know: nothing in Fed regs to inform driver of suspension).

Turns out, my former employer didn't pay up as they said they would, I didn't follow up as I should have.

Ended up costing me $400 to clear that up.

A year later, in Detroit, I killed a telephone pole (it had been clipped many times, just needed one more clip to break it). The Detroit cop writting me up said, "Do what you got to do to get into these places". Well, "do what you go to do" in that place would have been a sharp left across 6 lanes of traffic, blocking them all, so that I could back in. I boo-bood and tried to nose in (didn't realise until later that there was no room to turn around once I got in).

All I can say, with regard to U-turn, is "learn to spot the bear" before he/she spots you. Then "do what you got to do" and suffer the consequences.

solo379 · Joined: 14 Feb 2004 Posts: 3162

dlasaine wrote: yeah, i'd like to get one, but i have no money to do so.

Than go get it! $3-500,is a small price to pay, for your livelihood!

ken_o · Joined: 06 Nov 2005 Posts: 667

we all do stupid u turns its a matter of learning where to and not to attempt one. when i was a newer driver i attempted one and got stuck in the grass resulting in blocking most of the highway. The chain of events worked like this.
got stuck
got wrecker
got ticket
got lawyer
never happened.

kreeper01 · Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 9:40 am Post subject:

Things happen like this, i was in the middle of BFE in Maryland. When i got to an intersection, saw a no truck sign in front of me on the route that my former company gave me, saw another to my left, another to my right and saw the last one in my rear view mirror.

Informed my company of this and they told me to take it anyway. I forwared them if i get a ticket for this, i'm not signing it. By the time i got there, loaded and on my way, i was back in a "legal" truck route and there was a full blown smokey on my tail with no lights flashing.

All i can say is, get a lawyer, knock it down to a lesser charge, if not expunged entirely and you will be good to go.

Deus · Joined: 27 Aug 2006 Posts: 343

kreeper01 wrote: Things happen like this, i was in the middle of BFE in Maryland. When i got to an intersection, saw a no truck sign in front of me on the route that my former company gave me, saw another to my left, another to my right and saw the last one in my rear view mirror.

Informed my company of this and they told me to take it anyway. I forwared them if i get a ticket for this, i'm not signing it. By the time i got there, loaded and on my way, i was back in a "legal" truck route and there was a full blown smokey on my tail with no lights flashing.

All i can say is, get a lawyer, knock it down to a lesser charge, if not expunged entirely and you will be good to go.

Some of those truck routes really stink. I was doing a backhaul once in this hilly area of the city, some roads went under a low train track, others over it. Truck route I was following would have turned me around the opposite direction, I looked down the road didn't see any no truck signs so I took it. Sure enough "Clearence 12'5"". I had to pull into this small company lot and ask the guys outside smoking if they would block traffic while I backed out into the street to turn around.

Kind of embarassing, but would have been more embarassing had I not asked them to guide me and hit some one...

Rev.Vassago · Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 1:18 pm Post subject:

Even if you could get the citation reversed, it seems pretty obvious that your company is considering this a "preventable" accident (which has nothing to do with the citation). So, even without the citation, you will still have a preventable accident on your record, which is really what the other companies are looking at.

Rawlco · Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 1166 Location: Central Maine

At TMC any u-turn, ticketed or not, is a termination offense.

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