Quote:
Originally Posted by mighty3
My husband has been driving for 9 months for a big trucking company. This morning he called me. He had an accident. He went onto the shoulder, recorrected and flipped his truck on the interstate. Then another semi hit him and smashed his trailer and load everywhere. Thank God no one was hurt, but truck and load are totalled. No one was ticketed. My husband really likes his job and we are worried they will fire him. Other than this, he has a good record, but this sounds major. He is on the side of the road in Alabama waiting for the insurance adjuster. Has anything like this happened to any one out there, and what was the end result? Do you think he'll have a job after this, or be employable?
I gotta agree with TF, SheepD, Fre and Useless. Hubby should figure on a new job soon.
As fas as the accident itself goes, his "sin" was trying to bring a moving truck, back onto the road, after dropping a wheel off the pavement. The industry "safety standard" for a situation like that is, STOP the truck, on the shoulder just as it is. That has been in place since I started driving commercially in 1979. Once the truck is stopped, then it can resume forward motion, if traffic is clear, and return to the main portion of the roadway from that full stop position.
Your hubby can most likely look forward to getting a ticket for "speed to fast for conditions" which is automatic for most accidents, and a "failure to control the vehicle" or "improper lane usage" citation as well. You can get a "speed to fast for condition's" citation if you have an accident, and were only traveling at 20 mph.
Don't worry about the other truck getting off scott free either. That driver will most likely receive a ticket with the same "speed to fast for conditions", plus, "following to close", "failure to control vehicle" and "improper lane usage". The first 2 will be because the truck was traveling fast enough and close enough, that he could not slow down or stop, to avoid colliding with your hubby's units. The other charges..for both hubby and the other driver, are revenue generation.
After it's over and done with...come back and tell me if I am wrong with what citations your hubby receives.
I'm glad he was able to come out of the accident in decent enough shape, to be able to inform you himself, about his trouble. Many in the last couple weeks, have not been so lucky.