Company says accident was preventable/Need advice please
 

I was involved in an accident a couple months ago that was not my fault but the company I am currently employed with insists that it was preventable. What ,if any, recourse do I have to refute their claim outside of the company? Please anyone with some first hand knowledge of what actions to take in responce to this situation respond.

What happened?

I also hate to burst your bubble, but the vast majority of accidents are considered preventable by the trucking companies, and if you take a cold, logical look at the accident/incident most are preventable in some fashion.

this happened 3 months ago? Your odds of changing this is slim to none.

I am not really looking to get into particulars about the accident, but I will say that the other motorist that struck the company truck that I was driving at the time was cited for failure to yeild. Anyone with some actual, intelligent
first-hand knowledge of such recourse a driver might have in such a circumstance as this please chime in. Thank you in advance.

I said a couple months ago. June 19,2007 if you must be technical about such things. The insurance and law enforcement have concluded that this was not an "at-fault " accident on my behalf, but after the fact the company I am currently employed with labeled this "preventable".

at-fault <> preventable, the other persons failure to yield is essentially irrelevant.

Could you have done anything reasonable to prevent this accident?

Did the vehicle "come out of nowhere"?

The only thing you can do is appeal the decision through your company.

I would suggest however, that at the very least you sit down with them and have them explain how this accident is considered preventable.

I have plenty of experience with review boards.. I've sat on a few of them. The accident was reviewed by a group of drivers and the standards of preventable VS non-preventable are applied and the fact is that almost every accident is preventable in some way. The other driver can be totally at fault and not "yeild" to you, but if there is contact between your truck and the OV, you still probably could have done something to have prevented the collision. You are not "at fault", the accident was preventable.

Ive sit in with review boards (they are boring).

they best and easy way to define an accident is as follows:

Preventable Accident: You were moving in some fashion and hit something or something hit you.


Non-Preventable Accident: You were motionless and something hit you..


You got to give us specifics on the accident to help us out. Plus you misfortune will probably help many new drivers just starting their career.


You also waited a long time to appeal the decision. a review board would be completed after the few weeks after the accident (1-3 weeks).

I'm sorry to say that I'm LOST on this subject. I should know more about this kinda of thing as it could affect me sometime in the furture.Are there any "guide-lines" to go by? Any national standard? I can see a lot of room for abuse by the companies who want to keep their drivers from being able to leave for another company. If you you use the standard you described then everything is preventable. Two or three preventables and your chances of getting a job are close to slim to none.