CCJ

92 commercial carrier journal | september 2017 PREVENTABLE or NOT? Doe woolgathers his way into a wreck O n a sunny, quiet Friday a ernoon, John Doe was maneuvering his straight truck down Butafooco Boulevard, a one-way thoroughfare in Kansas City, Mo., daydreaming about his impending weekend visit to the Harley-Davidson dealership where he planned to buy an "almost- new" Spotify-ready entertainment system, complete with Bluetooth, from Billy Bob, the shop's mechanic. Doe had just passed some parked cars on his right and was approaching the intersection with Main Street, making mental weekend plans and keeping an eye on the tra c signal that, for the moment, remained encouragingly green. At that instant, Mrs. Mattie Crowly-Bubkis, who was stuck behind Doe, decided that the nasty ol' truck was moving too slowly. Fearing that she'd be caught at the intersection by a red light, Crowly-Bubkis became impatient and accelerated her 2014 augmented auburn Audi R8 around the right side of Doe's rig through some empty parking spaces and, losing control, ended up sideways, right in front of poor Doe's bumper! e Audi then was stopped dead in its tracks – a er impacting the right front fender of a rusty Chevy van piloted by Gramps Grumbley, who'd been pacing Doe in the le lane! Next, Doe's truck slammed into the side of the stationary luckless sports car. A er Doe contested the preventable-accident warning letter from his safety di- rector, the National Safety Council's Accident Review Committee was called upon to render a nal decision. NSC immediately upheld the preventable judgment, noting that Doe should have kept an eye on his right-side mirror. Had he done so, he could have avoided smashing into the maniacal Crowly-Bubkis. John Doe was driving slowly in the right lane of a two-lane one-way street when an impatient driver tried to pass on his right but lost control, leading to a three-vehicle crash. Was this a preventable accident?

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