Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/1004801
80 commercial carrier journal | july 2018 PREVENTABLE or NOT? Deer delivers dilemma to Doe S hould trucker John Doe swap his rusty but wonderfully loud ol' Har- ley for some of Billy Bob's vintage Winchesters? "Yep, I surely will," he decided, smiling at the prospect of bee ng up his collection. As a fresh celery stick disappeared into Doe's mouth to celebrate his decision, he saw that it was 10 p.m. with fair weather, light tra c and great country jams on satellite radio. But Doe's luck was about to change. A minute later, as his tractor-trailer began to descend a steep grade on North Carolina's dark, heavily wooded Pookatella Pike … Holy groundhogs! A eight-point buck suddenly decided to race across the highway from the opposing side! Almost choking on his celery stick, Doe hit the brakes hard. en, in a desperate attempt to avoid hitting the deer, Doe steered his tractor hard right, partially o the roadway. As a result, he missed the deer but heavily sideswiped the guardrail – the only thing between his rig and a deadly dropo – and destroyed his right front fender. Later, he contested the warning letter from his safety director that charged him with a preventable accident. Asked to resolve the issue, the National Safety Council's Accident Review Committee upheld the preventable ruling. By reacting as he did, Doe easily could have driven his big rig through the guardrail and o the side of the mountain, probably resulting in his own death. In sum, it would have been far safer to have kept his rig on the road and, if fate decreed, flattened the stag. Had he struck the animal, the accident probably would have been ruled nonpreventable. John Doe avoided hitting a deer that raced in front of him on a steep downhill grade, only to sideswipe a guardrail and destroy his right front fender. Was this a preventable accident?