Preventable Or Not

**Bruno** · 03-05-2010, 01:12 AM

If you hit a deer at night bending your bumper and it blows a steer tire causing you to hit the guard rail. Do you think it's fair for your company to charge you with a preventable accident?

**Desperado** · 03-05-2010, 07:03 AM

I have 5 deer not one has been counted as prentive but last one i had a 13000 $ gun a mule deer in CO hope if i hit another one its a southern deer and only a 4 or 500 $ gun

**xiggi** · 03-05-2010, 07:05 AM

I see no way this could be called preventable. An owner that tried to blame the driver would be one to steer clear of and warn others about IMHO.

**Moot** · 03-05-2010, 08:20 AM

Were hair samples gathered at the crime scene?

**Slo-Ride** · 03-05-2010, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by Moot

Were hair samples gathered at the crime scene?

NO,,,Rumors of little brown pellets right before the point of impact ended the investigation early before hair samples could be found.

**aileron** · 03-05-2010, 08:48 AM

No way it can be called preventable in my mind, but powers that be considers it as such. What is next? Someone hits you from behind and pushes you into the car in the front, and then you are charged with a preventable because you hit the car in the front...

**jujubeans** · 03-05-2010, 10:05 AM

Had a really great insurance agent tell me once...NO, you didn't hit the deer...the DEER hit you!

**bubblehead** · 03-05-2010, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Bruno

If you hit a deer at night bending your bumper and it blows a steer tire causing you to hit the guard rail. Do you think it's fair for your company to charge you with a preventable accident?

Not quite enough information to determine:

Visibility conditions, night yes but fog? Curve, hill or other obstructions, cleaniness of widshield?

Was speed appropriate for conditions?

Was equipment appropriate? Tires; proper inflation, tread 4/32+ (front) any cupping?

Steering linkage and suspension?

Lighting; Headlights working and proper watage, lens polished or yellowed? Could highbeam have been used at that time?

Driver's time on duty and physical condition, medications etc.

Distractions; On phone, talking to co-driver, etc?

If you got tagged with a preventable and safety did not investigate/question at least the above as a minimum, then safety just blew you off.

**TeamCaffee** · 03-05-2010, 11:31 AM

Originally Posted by aileron

No way it can be called preventable in my mind, but powers that be considers it as such. What is next? Someone hits you from behind and pushes you into the car in the front, and then you are charged with a preventable because you hit the car in the front...

I have heard this is a ticket as you were to close to the car in front of you.

Talk to safety people and you will be amazed at what is considered a preventable. Being parked in the wrong place and getting hit while parked can really mess with you and your record.

**aileron** · 03-05-2010, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by TeamCaffee

I have heard this is a ticket as you were to close to the car in front of you.

Ok, not a good example. But anyway, makes no sense to me that you would be charged with a preventable when there is nothing you could do to prevent it, short of not being there when the deer decided to cross the road.

What is really bad though, is that the person that this happened to was not only charged with a preventable, but was also fired by the company. Makes you wonder.....

**Bruno** · 03-05-2010, 12:07 PM

The company ruled this a preventable. And No it wasn't Panther or any of our drivers.

**LDB** · 03-05-2010, 12:54 PM

That's a tough one. Generally speaking it's not fair however with some drivers it may be based on their driving habits. No driver is going to admit they drive too aggressively but everyone has seen more than enough examples to know some do. Tough call.

**Turtle** · 03-05-2010, 12:57 PM

Bottom line, you chose to me on that road at that time. If you had chosen a different time to be on that road, or chosen a different road altogether, i.e., if you had been somewhere else, you would not have had an accident, therefor it is a preventable accident.

That's just how retarded some carriers are.

**JohnMueller** · 03-05-2010, 01:51 PM

This is from FMCSA on Preventable Accidents:

Objective: To reduce motor carrier fleet accident rates by establishing a company standard for safe driving.

Description: A preventable accident is one which occurs because the driver fails to act in a reasonably expected manner to prevent it. In judging whether the driver's actions were reasonable, one seeks to determine whether the driver drove defensively and demonstrated an acceptable level of skill and knowledge. The judgment of what is reasonable can be based on a company-adopted definition, thus establishing a goal for its safety management programs.

Note that the above definition of preventable accident is focused on the actions of the driver. It is the commonly used definition in evaluating driver performance. A broader definition, which can be used to evaluate the driver's and the motor carrier's actions, is given by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations as follows: Preventable accident on the part of a motor carrier means an accident (1) that involved a commercial motor vehicle, and (2) that could have been averted but for an act, or failure to act, by the motor carrier, or the driver.

The concept of a preventable accident is a fleet safety management tool which achieves the following goals:

It helps establish a safe driving standard for the driver.
It provides a criterion for evaluating individual drivers.
It provides an objective for accident investigations and evaluations.
It provides a means for evaluating the safety performance of individual drivers and the fleet as a whole.
It provides a means for monitoring the effectiveness of fleet safety programs.
It assists in dealing with driver safety infractions.
It assists in the implementation of safe driving recognition programs.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
HotFr8Recruiter

**fastman_1** · 03-05-2010, 02:32 PM

Last Accident I had I was not at fault, I was on the Ohio Turnpike in a down pour and a car past me way too fast, he hydroplained spun out in front of me, I felt it was my duty to stop that nonsense and t-boned him when he spun back in front me, state trooper shows up and goes to talk to the other driver, and the driver told him to hold on he was talking to a client on his cell phone....trooper wrote up a whole bunch of tickets just for him, as for deers I've hit a few andnever been charged at fault.