Looking Both Ways Avoiding Incidents and Accidents : Looking Both Ways

Lawrence

Founder
Staff member
What are the most common accidents and incidents? What can you – the professional driver – do to avoid them? I want to provide you with real, first-hand, factual information. Opening the accident file drawer in my office I reviewed the accident and incident folders for 2013. Many might find it amazing the major contributing factor to these files was, are you ready? - Not professional drivers, but other people!

READ MORE...
 

moose

Veteran Expediter
It is very unprofessional for a professional driver to be involved in an accident. once a professional driver is involved in an accident then he is not a professional driver any more, now do he.
 

JohnMueller

Moderator
Staff member
Motor Carrier Executive
Safety & Compliance
Carrier Management
Moose;

Accidents do happen. Many professional drivers are completely devastated after having even a minor accident. Because a professional driver has an accident does not necessarily diminish his or her title as a professional driver, especially if that driver did everything they could to have prevented that accident. We are all human.

Remember - Nothing runs like a Moose!
 

paullud

Veteran Expediter
Moose;

Accidents do happen. Many professional drivers are completely devastated after having even a minor accident. Because a professional driver has an accident does not necessarily diminish his or her title as a professional driver, especially if that driver did everything they could to have prevented that accident. We are all human.

Remember - Nothing runs like a Moose!

Is there a reason so many companies try so hard to always make accidents their drivers fault? There are so many times we see the actual at fault person doing dangerous and illegal things that caused the accident only to end up with the company dinging the drivers DAC with a preventable. I don't buy the "professional driver" so many like to spout because it just makes no sense to try and punish people when they have done nothing wrong.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using EO Forums mobile app
 

moose

Veteran Expediter
Is there a reason so many companies try so hard to always make accidents their drivers fault?
yes there is. a decision on if an accident is preventible or not, is NOT the safety guy decision. it is an act that is heavily regulated by the FMCSA. there are stricken criteria to determined an Preventible/none-Preventible accident.
you are correct when is comes to a none reportable accidents. many carrier will ding a driver reputation base on an 'incident' which is allowed by the DAC company.
 

zorry

Veteran Expediter
The differance between a driver and an accident free driver is often how well they like the driver.
Quite often not a fact based decision.

How well the driver articulates the report and follow up conversations has a lot to influance the outcome.

So does Union representation.
 

JohnMueller

Moderator
Staff member
Motor Carrier Executive
Safety & Compliance
Carrier Management
Zorry, Moose and Paulud;

All very good points. I'm sure there is reality to everything we are saying here. In one of my last blogs I spoke about the reasons why truck drivers are held to a higher standard - even when the cause of the accident is the other party's fault and they receive the citation for the accident. It is because you are working (your profession) when the accident ocurred and as a professional, you should have been able to avoid the circumstances. Our court systems award huge damages to these claimants for the negligent actions of the professional truck driver. I'm sure there are instances where the other party received a citation yet was awarded a settlement in a civil court of law because the driver or trucking company were negligent in some manner which may not have actually caused the accident! Remember, juries are always looking for the deep pockets, and insurance companies are always the third party involved in these lawsuits.

At fault and preventable are two separate concepts. Many accidents are not the "fault" of the professional driver, yet are deemed preventable. The definition of a preventable accident is "an accident in which the driver failed to do everything reasonable to prevent it".

Is all this fair? NO! But it is what it is and trucking companies and drivers need to do everything we can to avoid accidents and work within the guidelines of our sometimes insane legal system. Court rulings many times make no sense at all.

Keep up the great work each of you do. I always enjoy reading posts made by each of you. Moose, Paullud and Zorry are truely professional drivers - your posts are always well thought out.

Be safe in your travels.
 

paullud

Veteran Expediter
Keep up the great work each of you do. I always enjoy reading posts made by each of you. Moose, Paullud and Zorry are truely professional drivers - your posts are always well thought out.


John I always enjoy your intelligent and informative posts as well. Do the companies feel like it protects them in lawsuits because they can say that they are big on safety? Of course for less than reputable companies finding drivers at fault keeps drivers from leaving but for the others it seems there has to be a financial benefit.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using EO Forums mobile app
 

moose

Veteran Expediter
John, we will have to disagree on that one.
you choose to quote only the opening of the determination paragraph, {" A preventable accident is one which occurs because the driver fails to act in a reasonably expected manner to prevent it."}
while i choose to 'get the big picture'
Accident Preventability Evaluations - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
..."The judgment of what is reasonable can be based on a company-adopted definition"
as always, the FMCSA make 2 completely opposite definition of the law, so we can choose which one to use. it doesn't come any more insane then that.
 

JohnMueller

Moderator
Staff member
Motor Carrier Executive
Safety & Compliance
Carrier Management
Paullud;

The only thing that protects companies and drivers in lawsuits is the documentation (records) we keep and any witnesses. Documentation includes Driver Qualification files, logs, vehicle maintenance records and so on. Any company can say they are big on safety, proving it in a court of law is a different story.

An attorney for the plaintiff will pull out any negative info available - including unreliable CSA Basic scores and SaferSys data. That attorney will also bring a driver's PSP report and MVR to prove that "A. Professional Driver" is truely just a no-good person that does not care for the safety of the general public as they operate their 80,000 or 46,000 or 33,000 or 26,000 pound vehicle recklessly - all in the sake of making a buck.

Throughout my years as a Truck Process Agent I have read countless lawsuits against trucking companies and their drivers. I have also listened to instructors and speakers tell of various truck crash lawsuits while taking countless classes for my certifications. I've handled some severe accidents as the Safety Director for different trucking companies. The potential liability is not easily comprehended to persons other than seasoned safety professionals within the trucking industry who have been through a few lawsuits, or the attornies that have prosecuted those cases. When I write or speak, I never want to scare anyone into compliance - I just want them to open their minds to any potential (nasty) realities.

Contrary to sometimes popular opinion, I believe that most companies attempt to protect their drivers rather than harm them. There is no advantage to "black-balling" a driver. What companies do is attempt to protect from future "negligent" type lawsuits. What I mean by that is if a driver has an accident (severe) and the company does nothing, allowing that driver to continue to operate for the company, and now the driver has a really severe second accident, the company will be sued for negligence for not removing that driver from their fleet. Keep in mind that insurance does not pay for punitive (negligence type) damages. Even if a good driver is leaving the company there is no benefit to black-ball that driver. I would want that driver to consider returning to the company later. Like everything in life there are always two sides to very story. We all know the real truth usually lies somewhere in between.

Again, you always bring up some really good points.

Thanks,
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
According to figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), out of the 6 million car accidents that happen on U.S. roads every year, over 40% of them (2.5 million) are rear-end collisions.


On average there is another rear-end collision every 8 seconds, which means that by the time you have read this sentence there has already been another one or two.

Running into someone in a rear-end accident is considered the most preventable accident there is. But so is backing, and drunk driving, and every other type of accident, depending on who wants to make which points about accidents. Some will even say that all accidents are preventable. That's a very Zen way of looking at accidents. Even Landline Magazine flatly states, "All accidents are preventable if a driver operates at a speed that is reasonable for the current road, weather and traffic conditions."

All accidents are predictable and preventable, because all accidents occur because someone did something, or failed to do something, which caused a predictable accident. Sometimes it's both, like, you're driving on bald tires, one blows out, you wreck the car. You failed to replace bald tires and then intentionally drove on them.

6 million car accidents on U.S. roads every year. Statistics dictate that accidents will happen, and with great frequency. Therefore, no accident is preventable as long as people are involved. So, if you are ever charged with a preventable accident, show them the statistics that prove the accident was inevitable, and thus thoroughly unpreventable. :D

Hey, might as well. Beats being charged with a preventable while you were parked and sleeping in your bunk (which has happened).
 

wvcourier

Expert Expediter
Maybe the Recruiters should invest in some of the Smith training programs/ videos and implement them at Oreintation?

Sent from my SPH-L900 using EO Forums mobile app
 
Top