And Kevin Thinks He Has Bad Days
 

I was in California and was approaching a traffic light and I needed to make a right turn. I moved over to the left and stayed in my turning lane.

I came up to the light about 20mph and figured it would turn yellow so I slowed down to under 5mph. The light stayed green so I started my turn. A car came up to the red light and didn't give me room to clear him, so he started backing up for me. I stopped while he started backing and when I was clear I started turning again. When I cleared him with the tractor I looked in my mirror to clear the trailer.

When I looked in the mirror the trailer was in the side of a car who had decided to make a right turn too on my right side. It was a little old lady and it totaled her car.

I thought the CHP Officer was going to piss himself when he asked the little old lady what happened.

She told the Officer I started to turn then seen her so I stopped to let her go on by.

Anybody ever ran over anyone making a right turn? CHP said it will take 2 weeks to receive the report, so I don't know anything about citations. I know the old lady couldn't find a insurance card.

The old lady is at fault. Or at least should be, in my opinion. Of course, I'm not an investigator. If no insurance, she could be in deep water.

Being in Cali, who knows, they will probably charge you just because. As Jack said, the lady should still be at fault though.

No kiddin, Mr. Ford. Seems like they are always trying to nail the truckers.

My cousin went over the hood of one with a loaded log truck the same way. The guy tried to sneak along his right side in a turn even though there wasnt enough room to pass. Sure does make a mess. He didnt get a ticket.

I agree she is at fault, at least she didn't get hurt. This is why when I make right hand turns I ALWAYS keep a tight watch on my right, and keep my tandems as close to curb as possible to keep the gap closed. I have had cars try to sneak up on me on the right before, but I always just stopped as close as possible to them so they would get the point and back up (honking the air horn while doing it too, I have seen one driver playing with his radio while doing it, not even looking).

Also be careful with trailer swing if your tandems are pretty far forward, when I was in downtown CHI a few days ago, I had to stop in the middle of a turn because my trailer was about to swing into the left turning lane while I was turning right, honked my horn a couple times and waited a few seconds before proceeding, I couldn't actually see if there was a vehicle there or not, but I presume there probably was because it was a busy intersection. I didn't hit anything though so I assume they got the idea :).

I'm quite sure you won't get the ticket. But, your company may still consider it a "preventable." Like Matcat said, MOST of us were taught in school to keep the tandems near the curb to cut off this exact situation.

Even if you DIDN'T have to stop, you should try to steal a glance at your right rear side before (or while) completing the turn. But, once you DID stop, you should have checked your mirrors before continuing.

I'm not saying I haven't made this SAME mistake! I mean checking the mirrors, not running over someone.

I just remembered, Scott, that you're an O/O. I suppose you don't have to worry about the "company," but you MAY hear about it from your insurance company, unless you had no damage and don't report anything.

Even though SHE gets the ticket, she MIGHT file against your insurance IF you had to give that info.

Watch your back.... and be careful next time. ;)

NOTE to newbie COMPANY drivers..... even tho' not at fault, this incident could cost YOU your job.... and the ability to get another one.

Remember at all times.... you are NOT driving the CAB. You are driving the TRAILER.

I had one of those in Lathrop, CA . . everyone ahead was very accomodating but, just as I began to resume my turn, here's Jorge and Juan squeezing up on the right. They managed to get just far enough forward to keep me from moving as traffic piled up behind them to keep them from moving . . a stalemate.

I got out to see how much room I had, walked around the trailer to find Jorge screaming his lungs out. I glared at him and yelled "Hey a_s _0le, while pointing out the wide turn graffic. Before I managed to get back in, I heard the squealing of tires and the thumping of curb jumping as my new friends decided to use the sidewalk rather than wait.

Back in the mid 70's I got my Class A, bought my own truck and went to work for a local company. (Kind of did a Steve Booth, now that I think about it) My first load was to bobtail to the port of Oakland & pick up a chassis & an empty container. When I was there I met three of our other OO's. They were loading empty containers on their sets of doubles, a 20' on the front trailer & a 40 on the pull. Two of them were locals, who I at last knew by name and reputation and the third was this black guy from LA who looked like he should have been playing linebacker in the NFL.

Introductions were made, everybody got hooked up & tied down & we headed out, linebacker in the lead, me in the back. At an intersection where we had to turn right we were all staying out from the curb, with our signals on, when some woman in a VW raced by all of us on the right and practically drove her car under the back axle of the first truck making the turn.

There was a major traffic jam forming as she got out and was sitting on the curb, complaining about how her neck hurt. Linebacker listened to her for a minute and said; "Sister, you better tell them it ruined your sex life, they only pay $750 for a whiplash"

I got a call tonight from the CHP Officer. He had not got my MC#

I asked him if there were any citations. He said California does not permit him to write a citation unless he actually see's the infraction or there is a injury accident with a investigation.

He said he was basically a go between on the exchange of information.

I worked for a company in Fla, when they hired me the boss was going through the rules and he said, right turn accident, you are automatically terminated per the insurance company, they dont even want to hear what happened, they consider all right turn accidents preventable.

Just a thought....do many of you guys carry a camera ( preferably something like a handycam, or even a digital camera with video ) with you in your trucks ?

I know of a guy who was left wishing he had one....here is his story : it was a brutally cold & nasty winter day, with lots of snow everywhere. He came upon a set of lights, where it was green for him, so, after a cursory scan for cross-traffic, he kept going. Suddenly, out of the blue, he realised that somebody had hit him at the intersection. He got out of the truck, and sure enough, there was this woman in her 20s, her car covered in snow, with just a small section of her windshield showing as she hadn't bothered to clear the rest of the snow from the windshield. She hadn't seen the red light, and had run smack into him.

Needless to say, by the time the cops got there, she had cleared the snow from her car, & squarely blamed him, saying that it was he who had jumped the light !!!

He was left ruing not having had a camera, which would have cleared him instantly.

Almost all cell phones now a days have one built in. My phone has a 2.0mp camera, and does video as well. Most large companies REQUIRE you to have one, and usually keep you stocked with disposables.

some courts do not allow digital cams. as they can be "photo shopped" great to have one for right then but use an "old school" 35mm also. Remember CYA

VERY interesting point and info! I would never have thought of that! I always carry a disposable 35mm with built in flash. Make sure you keep the negatives, as even a REAL photo can be scanned and "shopped."

Not questioning your story (or your friend,) but didn't the cops notice the huge piles of snow abreast of her windshield on either side of her car (after she cleaned it off)??

almost anything that can be done in photo shop can be done in a dark room with 35mm film. a lot police departments use digital camera's. its also very easy to tell if a file has been photo shopped. most courts in fact do allow digital photography as evidence. two cases were the court ruled that digital photography is as admissible as film

State of California vs. Phillip Lee Jackson, 1995

State of Washington vs. Eric Hayden, 1995: A homicide case was taken through a Kelly-Frye hearing in which the defense specifically objected on the grounds that the digital images were manipulated. The court authorized the use of digital imaging and the defendant was found guilty. In 1998 the Appellate Court upheld the case on appeal.

also federal law backs it up.


"Federal Rules of Evidence, Article X (Contents of Writings, Recordings and Photographs), Rule 101(1) defines writings and recordings to include magnetic, mechanical or electronic recordings. Rule 101(3) states that if data are stored in a computer or similar device, any printout or other output readable by sight, shown to reflect the data accurately, is an "original". Rule 101(4) states that a duplicate is a counterpart produced by the same impression as the original…by mechanical or electronic re-recording, … or by other equivalent techniques which accurately reproduces the original. And Rule 103 (Admissibility of Duplicates) states a duplicate is admissible to the same extent as an original unless (1) a genuine question is raised as to the authenticity of the original or (2) in the circumstances it would be unfair to admit the duplicate in lieu of the original. This means a photograph can be stored digitally in a computer, that a digital photograph stored in a computer is considered an original, and any exact copy of the digital photograph is admissible as evidence."

The skill and time required to digitally add snow to someones vehicle would be far beyond the scope of the situation. Even a professional would need a good hour of time to make it look real, the cop would of been there way before that, and I doubt the drive would be sitting in his sleeper modifying his digital photo waiting on the cop.

Digital photos carry a "signature" from the camera, found in the properties of the photo. It describes the type of camera used, the aperture, the f-stop, and can even tell the date and time the photo was taken. Photos edited in Photoshop do not carry this digital signature.

Furthermore, the picture itself can be traced back to the specific digital camera used to take the picture, as each digital camera imprints a unique signature onto the photo itself (via pixel placement). It is very similar to the way a bullet can be traced back to the gun that fired it.

This was exactly my question to him...he reminded me that it was snowing pretty heavily on the day in question. And I did recall that it did indeed snow a lot on that day, since it happened in the city of Edmonton, where I live.

Uhm that data can be preserved in photoshop, there is a setting that you can set to keep it from altering the signature, and not ALL cameras do this either, but most do.

I took alot of pics from every angle and mailed them to my insurance company.

They probably consider ALL crashes preventable.

Both drivers are at fault, sure the car should not have been there but the truck driver has the responsibility to make sure the way is clear of pedestrians, cyclists, etc.... Surely a car should've been seen...

Let me follow you around LA for a day with cars driving crazy, running red lights at every intersection.

I bet i can get in your right corner and you never see me.

Doesn't make it not his fault. The proper way to make a turn is to never leave the lane you're traveling in and to swing wide enough to make the turn. I know that this isn't pratical, but it is what is taught and supposed to be done.

I've been at some intersections where that is hard to pull off, but it's the law. Makes ya wonder what size of truck they used when they created that law. :p :lol:

It's another law that wasn't written by a truck driver thats for sure. :)

I never left my lane. The turning lane was actually made for trucks and was double wide in width. It was in a area south of Fresno where there are alot of truckstops.

I had stopped by a scale to weigh being I was loaded with 44,000lbs

How do you post a pic on here??

Put [img] before the image URL

at the end of the image URL, put [/img]

Actually, I'll bet you that it was a law that was written before we had 48' trailers. Why do you suppose CA only allows a 40' bridge on a 53?

You're not having much luck posting pics, are you?

They showed up on mine

Yeah, they are coming through now. Must be that rockin' internet connection I have.

That is a picture perfect match of exactly what is drawn on that nice big yellow sticker less then a few feet away from the car ;)

I'd be very interested in just how it all turns out. I've never done it, but I've seen a number of others that have. Even my wife came close to it. But in order to get alongside her, the guy had to go up onto the sidewalk. But, she saw him before she would have pinned him against a utility post.

I've heard that it comes down on the driver, regardless. But, I've never heard anything official about the outcome. So far, the only accidents I've ever had were non-preventable. Only two. Guess I need to find some real wood and beat the Hell out of it.

From his second picture, IMO he was not close enough to the right curb to prevent this accident. He started his turn while leaving enough room for that car to sneak in :roll: If the turn would have been properly completed there would have been no room for the 4 wheeler to sneek in. IMO that is......


I always leave my trailer axles 1-2 feet from the curb, swing the front of the trailer out wide, then around the turn I go. :thumbsup:
It is a instant termination at my company as well. So are backing accidents. Good luck I hope the insurance companys over look how far away your trailer is from the curb.....

As much as I hate to admit it, that is indeed preventable. Should of checked that right mirror before even letting your foot off that clutch.

Hopefully though your company will look past it. I would hate to see you lose your job in this economy over it, just take it as a lesson learned!