[matcat]

This morning I was driving on I64 wb just short of 81, and just as I reached the top of the montain (Going 50mph in DENSE fog), and all of a sudden infront of me, another truck, going 35mph! I was only loaded with about 10,000lbs, and I slammed on the breaks and tried to get over to the left lane (but as a result of breaking my trailer jacked towards the guardrail, preventing me from going left) and I hit the back of the other trailer No real damage to the other trucks trailer, but destroyed my hood, radiator, and fan. I got a following too close ticket, and got towed back to company terminal, already did drug and alcohol test, passed, now just waiting on the company to decide if they will give me a loner from this term, or make me go back to my term to get a loner. But the real question is, what is the ramifications to my CDL with a rear ender, and the ticket???

[Sheepdancer]

Im not trying to make you worry, but......
You need to realize that right now you arent sitting around waiting to see if they are going to give you a loaner there or back at the terminal. If you work for a big company, right now they are reveiwing your accident in the safety dept trying to decide if they are going to fire you or not.

1 accident and 1 ticket shouldnt hurt you too much as long as you arent fired for it. Of course a rear end accident on your dac isnt going to look great and there will always be some companies that wont hire you for a few years because of it.
If you are fired from that job because of it, then your problems start. Most companies arent going to want to hire you because you were fired for a safety related reason until you drive for a while clean for someone else. Then you will be one of the posters out here posting things like "Help, I cant find a job because companies say they want 6 months of clean driving working for someone else, but no one wants to hire me to get that 6 months"
Hope it works out for ya, man and you arent terminated.

[newbiehopeful]

I live in the York,PA area and I can verify the fog was VERY terrible today.

Sorry to hear about the incident.

[Evinrude]

A dispatcher make a mistake he hit back space, a trucker makes a mistake and your fired.

[Drew10]

Originally Posted by Evinrude

A dispatcher make a mistake he hit back space, a trucker makes a mistake and your fired.

Not a good comparison. dispatcher didnt make a safety "mistake"...Driver was driving to fast for the conditions. Driving past his sight distance.

[ICS]

Originally Posted by Evinrude

A dispatcher make a mistake he hit back space, a trucker makes a mistake and your fired.

When a dispatcher makes a mistake he waits money, when a trucker makes a "mistake" he kills people. ...try not to make any mistakes

[TGTLLC]

Originally Posted by Drew10

Not a good comparison. dispatcher didnt make a safety "mistake"...Driver was driving to fast for the conditions. Driving past his sight distance.

not to be a jerk and i cant say for sure that the OP job is toast but we have a small fleet of trucks 5 total.

if it were up to me i most likely would have to get rid of Him/Her for the reason stated above. you out ran you sight distance.

but with a bigger company with hundreds of trucks it may be a different story but from a small company point of view it woudl not be good.

i do with you the best and hope you are able to keep your job cause losing a job is never easy and epsecially in todays market.

just remember to slow down and take your time, witch i am sure you will understand more now then you have before. its amazing how fast you can out run your sight distance and not even know it.

[Orangetxguy]

I'm just wondering why you were in a right hand lane, climbing that hill, doing 50 mph in the fog. Yes..i realize that you had a light load...but obviously the truck you hit either had a heavy load...or that driver was concerned enopugh about the fog, to be driving accordingly.

Sheep is right..safety is doing their review. You might get spanked and sent home for 2 or 3 days without pay, or you might be given your walking papers.

[matcat]

As far as I thought, I thought I WAS within my sight distance, this stretch of highway is a bit unique has it has fog lights built into the road, and I could actually see the 3 fog lights ahead, as well as enough road, what threw it off, is this was during the day, and her truck was white, she had her flashers on, but during the day time IN fog its hard to see tail lights, and a white trailer in fog is nearly impossible to see, like I said I could SEE the fog lights on the road, so I figured I would see tail lights or a vehicle just as far, but literally by the time I saw her tail lights, I was way too close to be able to slow down enough, and honestly I did not expect to run into someone going 35mph in a 65mph zone, to me 50mph felt right, and she was not even loaded, because she opened her doors to check it out, empty trailer. As far as driving too fast for conditions, the officer did not cite me for that, he just got me for following too close, and believe me I was NOT the only one going in the 50mph range, as a matter of fact, they had a sign truck parked behind me with a get over arrow, and cars and trucks where STILL zooming by in the right lane, 90% of them going 50+ mph, and there where almost atleast 4 more accidents from people slamming breaks by the time they saw the police lights, 2 trucks nearly jacked right next to us from slamming breaks coming up on cars that slowed down after seeing the cops lights, and this is a spot that is notorious for having pile ups nearly every week. Now I did NOT know this stretch of road was so notorious, if I did I would of gone a lot slower and or hung out in the hammer lane, we are only talking about 2 mile stretch of road here. Is this preventable? YES I know it was, and I know NOW what my mistake was, but at the same time it is not like I was just being careless, I was just UNAWARE of the circumstances involved, and from what I can tell the company does understand that, as I was only on safety hold for a few hours (they took me off after I did the mandatory drug and alcohol test). I DO consider myself a GOOD and SAFE driver, and I still do, I just personally view this accident has a learning experience, and chock it up to inexperience on my part, not knowing and understanding this stretch of road and not really considering the fact that others might of been going so slow, next time I know better.

[rumbarrel]

well, Matt, good luck to you. I hope you get to keep your job! It's been a blast watching your webcasts!! I am planning on going to driving school this summer and becoming a driver too. Hope you're out on the road again soon. Chin up, my friend!!