Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/698304
July 2016 | Overdrive | 47 PREVENTABLE OR NOT: Prepare for the squeeze SCENARIO: Trucker John Doe had completed a left-lane curbside delivery at a restaurant in downtown Atlanta. As he inched his way into morning rush-hour traffi c, a double-parked delivery truck forced him to merge into the right lane, rather than gain speed in the left curbside lane. A courteous four-wheeler operator had stopped in the right lane to allow Doe to enter it. So Doe, without checking his mirrors, attempted to merge right. Suddenly, an impatient cab driver behind Doe in the left lane mashed the gas to try to maneuver around Doe's rig. The two vehicles collided, prompting Doe's safety director to issue a preventable accident warning letter. Doe contested. Who's in the right? VERDICT: Preventable. The National Safety Coun- cil's Accident Review Committee said Doe should have made better use of his mirrors and anticipated the cab driver's impatient "squeeze play" attempt. The raccoon can be "a charismatic species," says Pamela Boehland of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But their accidental transport over long distances can circum- vent regional rabies vaccine barriers established by USDA's National Rabies Management program that distributes oral vaccine baits in wild areas where rabies prevalence among raccoons, skunks, foxes and bats is known. The Canadian provin- cial governments do the same in close collaboration with the U.S. program, says Tore Buchanan, senior wildlife research technician for the On- tario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. Buchanan recalls a rac- coon that recently hopped aboard a trucker's rig at an automotive warehouse in Hebron, Ky., after the trailer's doors were left open overnight. At the delivery in Mississauga in the Toronto area, says Buchanan, "when the driv- er opened up the doors again, the raccoon came out of the tractor-trailer and into the [receiving] warehouse." The driver on the scene, Buchanan says, knew enough about the rabies programs to call an animal-control operator to trap the animal and have it tested. Introducing species to new areas can break down local resistance to other diseases as animals are exposed to "genetically diff erent" variations of diseases from diff erent regions. In the case of the Kentucky raccoon, while it wasn't rabid, it tested pos- itive for canine distemper and parvovirus – serious diseases themselves. Buchanan says such a "translocation" of a rac- coon could be responsible for the return of Eastern U.S. raccoon-strain rabies to the province this past December. If you see a stowaway in your rig, Buchanan advises, "con- tact a municipal animal control or professional nuisance-wildlife expert" who can decide if testing is warranted. "We assume the inci- dence of this is underre- ported," Buchanan says. If more instances of trans- port could be documented, the spread of rabies, the world's most deadly virus, might better be contained. Cute hitchhiker can spread rabies Introducing a raccoon or certain other animals to a non-native area can break down local resistance to rabies and other diseases.