Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/140569
Preventable or not? Doe pained by train crossing A t the roadside safety inspection that morning (which had earned him a CVSA decal), tractor-trailer driver John Doe had a brief chat with the safety specialist from the Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety about the agency's new emphasis on enforcement and total aversion to cooperation. Trucking companies now must be viewed as the enemy camp, Doe was advised, and most commercial vehicle enforcement personnel already had purged their desks of diecast model trucks, coffee mugs and ballcaps displaying the names of extinct and extant motor carriers. How sad! Suddenly, Doe's musings were interrupted by the realization that he was fast approaching an John Doe was intersection controlled by a traffic light. About being tailgated and 60 feet beyond the intersection was a railroad tried to accelerate through a railroad grade crossing with another traffic light plus grade crossing, but signal arms and bells to warn of an approacha descending signal ing locomotive. Since both traffic lights were arm mangled one green, Doe proceeded and was a few feet from of his mirrors. Was the tracks when ... Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! … this a preventable Egad! The light at the grade crossing had just accident? turned red, and the gates were descending! If Doe stood on the brakes, the little car that presumably still was tailgating his rig surely would run smack into his underride guard, 10-4? So Doe floored the accelerator and … CRACK! Oh no! A signal arm had descended upon, and severely mangled, Doe's shotgun-side West Coast mirror! Argh! Since Doe contested the preventable-accident warning letter from his safety director, the National Safety Council's Accident Review Committee was asked to render a final decision. NSC ruled against Doe, noting that it's better to risk being rear-ended by a Honda Civic than to be sideswiped by a train. 104 commercial carrier journal | july 2013 Rig Dig_CCJ0413_PG108.indd 1 CCJ_0713_Preventable.indd 104 3/21/13 9:56 AM 6/19/13 2:21 PM