Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/821508
92 commercial carrier journal | may 2017 Rig Dig_CCJ0413_PG108.indd 1 3/21/13 9:56 AM PREVENTABLE or NOT? No go for Doe in driving snow I t was midnight, and the wind was howling like a hound dog as trucker John Doe fought his way toward Woonsocket, S.D., peering intently through his windshield at a springtime blizzard. He was plowing his way through deep snow on Persnickety Pike at 45 mph with a heavily laden 48-foot dry van in tow. Appropriately, his favorite country-western streaming channel was playing "A ousand Miles From Nowhere." At least Doe had survival rations on board: a cooler full of fresh celery sticks and a big Thermos loaded with ultra-strong coffee obtained from Aunt Fanny's Truck Stop. Suddenly, Doe's headlights illuminated a strange "some- thing" on the road ahead ... Great galloping gophers! Persnickety Pike was blocked partially by a giant tree! Feverishly pumping the brakes, Doe took a death grip on the steering wheel, but his frantic, heroic attempts to save the day did no good: His long-nose tractor slid into the fallen oak with a resounding "WHOMP!" Doe's bumper was brutalized, as was his mood when he received a warn- ing letter for a preventable accident from his safety director. Doe contested the ruling, and the National Safety Council was asked to resolve the dispute. NSC immediately upheld the preventable ruling, not- ing that Doe clearly had been overdriving his headlights and driving too fast for blizzard conditions with deep snow on a dark road. John Doe was traveling through a raging blizzard at midnight when he realized the road was blocked partially by a giant tree, but it was too late to avoid impact. Was this a preventable accident?