Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/201087
PREVENTABLE or NOT? Doe, maniac merge in Mississippi A t 6:30 a.m., fortified by a cup of coffee, John Doe halted his northbound tractor-trailer at a red light within the city limits of Goshdang, Miss. The sun was shining, the road straight ahead was dry and devoid of traffic, and only the songs of birds could be heard – Wait a minute! – until Doe detected the sounds of increasingly loud country music. Glancing at the lane to his right, Doe witnessed the high-decibel arrival of an elderly and battered Ford pickup truck. Replete with a rear-window gun rack and a good-ol'-boy driver wearing a John Deere cap, the pickup also stopped at the red traffic signal, mainSeeing that the roadway taining a high idle. A moment later, the was soon to become a light changed to green. Accelerating to single lane, a pickup 5 mph, Doe saw that the roadway was driver pulled wildly in front of John Doe's soon to become a single lane – his lane, tractor, damaging both he thought. In turn, the pickup's driver, rides. Was this a aware that the right lane was ending, depreventable accident? cided he didn't want to get stuck behind a slow 18-wheeler. Accordingly, the pickup accelerated heavily, pulled wildly in front of Doe's tractor and – WHAM!!! – caused $800 damage to the tractor's right front fender and $500 damage to the pickup's left rear fender. The long arm of the law quickly arrived and cited the pickup's driver for an unsafe lane change. Shortly thereafter, Doe's safety director wrote him a warning letter for a preventable accident. The National Safety Council's Accident Review Committee upheld the judgment, ruling that Doe should have expected the pickup to try and get ahead of him, and that he should have watched his mirrors in case he needed to yield quickly. 92 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2013