This takes the cake!

[Suds43]

I repeat: MOOT, YOUR NOT RIGHT!!!!!!!! hhhahahahaha lol

you need to be a writer, not a driver!! Or, with your warped perspective on things, you'd make a great dispatcher!! LOL

Have a good day Moot...............I"m curious though, you never mentioned how the hampster funeral went...........that would be a story all in itself........LOL

 

[wallytrucker1]

Moot: You made my otherwise dreary and depressing day a lot brighter, still laughing.....and Phil, you gotta admit, "THAT WAS FUNNY"..

 

[arrbsthw]

As I got toward the end of story, I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't read.. Very
funny Stuff Moot!!

 

[hondaking38]

some of the best creative writing i have ever read!!!!!!much better then patrick mcmanus..

AAAAAAAAAAAA++++++++++++++

 

[Telecaster]

Moot --

Funny! Spot-on!

The writers' strike is over. Go west (or east), young (?) man. You should be writing for Leno and Letterman.

Great stuff! Thank you.

 

[cheri1122]

Agree, Star, IF the driver said he was going to drive home - something we don't know, in this case. (He may have wanted someone to relieve him of the load, until he felt able to drive....)
The problem is, how does one know whether they're seriously ill, or just feeling like crap? The two can feel very similar, you know? There's also the reluctance many feel to admit they ARE sick. Not too many years ago, I myself laid on the couch for five days straight, in too much pain to move, able to eat or drink nothing but an occasional sip of ice water, and refused to go the the hospital, because I kept thinking it would get better. I lost a kidney, and am lucky to have got off with just that, because it nearly exploded, and then I would have gone septic, (systemic infection) and people don't generally survive that - but I could NOT believe I was that sick, because I'd never really been sick before. Some of us don't want to look like whiners, right?
If the driver wasn't adamant about being too sick to drive, I could see the dispatcher persuading him to keep going, for one more day. It would be a tough call - but I'd hope that dispatchers would never push (or even nudge) a driver to go beyond what the driver feels capable of doing.

 

[highway star]

Warning signs can be easily misinterpreted. I had a relative that told his wife he didn't feel well and was going to bed early. He never woke up. There was no indication there was anything that wrong. Coco says that the dispatcher "insisted", but maybe the dispatcher said, "do you think you'd be able to" and because the driver didn't think things were that bad he said O.K. We really don't know exactly what was said. But, we do know that he was near Huntsville, a big town where he could have easily found a place to get medical attention. But he's telling dispatch that instead of that, he wants to go home, whatever the mode of transportation.

There's just no way dispatch can be looked at as the bad guy in this. If someone thinks they're with a company that would tell them to keep going after you tell them that you think you may be seriously ill and need to get help, it's time to find another company. What we do know is that didn't happen here.

 

[x06col]

Cherri, ya jes can't quite get that pitty poo drivers hat off, can you? Maybe blaming the victim in this and many other cases, is spot on.

Moot, sounds like you got er handled. Used your grey matter, an went with the flow during the whole event. An yer a good shot, seems like.

 

[Coco]

Everyone has good points in response to my post. As I mentioned we overheard the conversation. That would be heresay and inadmisssable in a court of law. Neither party can be held responsible based on heresay.

We do not know the whole story but a seed of thought has been placed in our gray matter by what others have said.

That's what's so great about forums. We get to hear what others are thinking and it allows us to ponder the thought and.... get some occaisional entertainment to boot!

 

[x06col]

Hope so. Seems many get plenty of exercise jumping to conclusions and rushing to answer these days, without tink'in bout it.

 

[RichM]

Mr Moot that was the best one ever.

 

[RichM]

Going Back and rereading A Teams comments and Moots reply I think it needs to go to GEO's Hall of Fame.

 

[nightcreacher]

Excellent list Ateam! Be prepared! Setting up and practicing reaction drills not only can save lives but it is also fun.

Many years ago a coworker, Wilhelm Mehoff ( his parents called him Willy, his friends called him Jack) and I wanted to test our reaction to a blown steer tire. We drove a tractor/trailer loaded with pulp logs to a remote granite spall dump about 30 miles from St. Cloud, MN. I remember that cold, sunny Wednesday morning in early February very well. Jack drove. I sat in the passenger seat holding my Carcano M91/38 bolt action short barrel rifle with scope between my legs. The same type rifle Lee Harvey Oswald used in Dallas so many years before.

The dump site offered the perfect place to test our steer tire blowout drill. There was a long, fairly straight dirt road leading in that ran in front of a 30 foot high granite heap. For the next couple of hours we practiced for the real drill. Jack drove the truck with me perched on my granite knoll snipers nest. We timed each run and had all of the details worked out so that when I pulled the trigger for real, Jack and the truck would be just entering a point where the road turned to the left.

Feeling confident with our plan, we broke for lunch. About 12:45 Jack drove the truck out to the main road, turned around and came highballing into the dump site. As he passed the granite knoll I squeezed off one round. Direct hit! The left front steer tire blew. Jack wrestled with the steering wheel trying desperately to maintain control of the truck. The truck pulled hard to the left hitting a small pile of granite rubble and tearing open a fuel tank. Then it careened to the right hitting another pile of granite ripping off the right steer tire and finally coming to rest.

I ran as fast as I could to the wreckage. As I got closer I could smell and then see the leaking diesel fuel. Jack was hunched over the steering wheeling with severe head trauma. What luck! Not only were we able to practice the blown steer tire drill, but now I had a broken down truck, an accident victim, and a Hazmat spill all in a remote area.

I quickly assessed the situation. Priority numeral uno (Spanish for number 1, no not peepee that's another thread) was to contain the fuel spill and protect the environment. I removed my trousers and using my bootlaces tied off each leg at the cuff. I then filled my pants with loose granite chips and frozen clods of dirt and snow. I did the same with my socks. The end result was a home made spill containment kit. It worked perfectly.

Having saved the environment I gave the truck a cursory examine. My gut instinct was that the truck was toast. My mechanical training and experience confirmed that. As I climbed up into the cab to render aid to Jack it happened. A tornado siren went off. Early February, in Minnesota? What the .... The shrill siren startled me. I lost my footing and fell backwards hitting my head on a granite chunk. I was dazed and possibly suffered a mild concussion. But I remember thinking more good luck. I am now hurt and a tornado is nearby. This will cover 6 of the 9 reaction drills. I had forgotten that it was the first Wednesday of the month and it was now 1:00 p.m. There really was no tornado.

Jack, Jack, I had to help Jack. I got up and staggered toward the truck. Once more I climbed the cab to where Jack sat motionless and bleeding. It was too late. Jack had succumbed to a nasty head injury. He hadn't been wearing a seatbelt so that he would be injured allowing me to practice the accident with injuries reaction drill. Bless his soul!

I got Jack's remains into a body bag I had left over from my school bus driving days and began the long hike out to the main highway. At the highway I stuck out my thumb trying to flag down a ride. People were reluctant to pick us up. Me in my underwear and the Carcano slung over my shoulder and Jack half in the bag. (the bag being grade school/middle school size) Together Jack and I hoofed it into civilization. I found a pay phone and immediately called the E.P.A. to report the fuel spill. I then called home to say I would be late for dinner. That's when my wife broke the awful news. My daughter's hamster had died. Family emergency. I wanted to, no I NEEDED to get home and comfort her.

My next phone call was to a cab company. Soon Jack and I were safe and warm in the back of a cab. I had the driver drop Jack off at a mortuary and we continued on toward the apartment I shared with my family. More good fortune. The cab broke down in an unsafe neighborhood inhabited by college students. The streets were littered with broken beer bottles and empty tapper cups. But I was able to make it home. Havening completed 8 of the 9 reaction drills.

Whenever I hear "Warren Commission", "grassy knoll" or "Dallas" I am reminded of the 3 Jacks; Kennedy, Ruby and Mehoff and of that glorious day in early February.

Please take care and practice, practice practice!

moot i know this is terrible,but I cant stop laughing.Back in the 60's I had a good friend,his name was really jack mehoff,in fact he went to californa to work at the shelby plant making the shelby mustangs

 

[Crazynuff]

Mr Moot that was the best one ever.

Yeah , but he should have had some observers so he could have said " Hey guys , watch this !"

 

[Crazynuff]

It sounds like possibly this driver had stopped for his 10 hour break since he was still at the Pilot the next morning . In that case the result would have been the same no matter what the response from dispatch was .
Pilot has begun opening clinics at their locations . Pilot Travel Centers Brings Health Clinics to Locations
They could be life savers . I just hope they don't just keep bankers' hours are are available when needed .

 

[davekc]

Going Back and rereading A Teams comments and Moots reply I think it needs to go to GEO's Hall of Fame.

Certainly a classic

 

[rdtrpn]

We were sitting at the Pilot in Priceville Al, close to Huntsville and overheard a driver complaining of being sick and needing to go home. His dispatcher insisted he deliver his freight the next morning before going home to Georgia.

After his freight was not delivered the next day, his company contacted Pilot to see if he had abandoned his truck.

He was found in his truck. He had passed away during the night.

What part of our lives is so unimportant that our own instincts are ignored?

How about prison for the dispatcher.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

How about prison for the dispatcher.

I hope you're kidding.

 

[x06col]

Hey Hawk, I'm tired. It's your turn. Git after him.

 

[Critter Truckin]

How about prison for the dispatcher.

Or better yet... how about this. Since I'm going to guess that almost everyone in the corporate world is going more and more PC with their company beliefs and terminology (like how Express-1 calls us "Value Providers"... Give me a freaking break!!!), why not send the dispatcher in question to some sort of over-the-phone nursing classes and then maybe a little sensitivity training. Or how about instead of just the regular way of asking if someone is well enough to deliver a load, lighting up a campfire inside the dispatch office and then a rousing rendition of Kumbaya together with s'mores and some freaky smelling patchoulie incense. Then they ask if he's OK after all that.

Point of this... I'm not trying to call out your political, spiritual or other beliefs that you may have... but bottom line is, prison? You're smokin the good stuff, right?