Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/716013
116 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | AUGUST 2016 Rig Dig_CCJ0413_PG108.indd 1 3/21/13 9:56 AM PREVENTABLE or NOT? Merging Cougar mauls Doe's f ender S hortly before the accident, tractor-trailer driver John Doe was listen- ing with disbelief to a Channel 19 account of a luckless New Jersey carrier being fined thousands of dollars by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration because forklift operators weren't wearing seat- belts. Huh? Are these enforcement guys nuts? The last time Doe had heard of a forklift flipping was back in 1968 during a drunken New Year's Eve bar- rel race between a Clark and a Hyster! At the moment, Doe was tooling along at 55 mph in the far-left lane of three-lane one-way Muttonbutt Road, approaching the intersection with Route 4. The light ahead had just turned green, and Doe's lane was devoid of traffi c. Cautiously decelerating to 35 mph before entering the intersection – where vehicles in the center and right lanes had started to move – Doe suddenly noticed a dull-blue Cougar in the middle lane whose left-turn signal was fl ashing. Whoa! Suspecting that the Cougar intended to leap across his bow onto Route 4, Doe hit the brakes, sounded his horn and swerved to the left. But alas, the Cougar's elderly driver, Matty Munchley, was sure she could squeak past the nasty ol' truck, and … WHUMMPPO! Oh no! Doe had been struck, with his right front fender sustaining a spontaneous structural reconfi guration. Munchley was OK, albeit mighty miffed. Since Doe contested the preventable accident warning letter from his safety director, the National Safety Council's Accident Review Committee was asked to resolve the controversy. NSC quickly ruled in Doe's favor, concluding that there was nothing more he could have done to avoid be- ing pounced upon by the Cougar. John Doe hit the brakes and swerved to avoid a car cutting in front of him, but the collision damaged his right front fender. Was this a preventable accident? Rt. 4 Muttonbutt Road