Profile For Pianoman

Congrats! You’ve earned it!

I was in Utah yesterday when it happened and you couldn’t even tell since it was only a partial eclipse. It was still super bright out. I took a pic with my phone and that was the only way I was able to tell. If you look closely you can see where it must have reflected on one of the lenses or something, showing a much clearer picture of the eclipse.

On a more random note, took this pic at the Loves in Brigham City yesterday and thought it looked kinda cool with the mountains in the back

Cropped version:

I feel your pain. Unfortunately you’re in the position of needing to do the physical at the location they specify or choosing another employer who doesn’t require a physical from a specific doctor.

Most companies I’ve worked for did not care where I got my physical.

I’m kinda sad I’ll miss it. I’m in PA right now but I should be in Utah or Idaho by the time of the eclipse

If that lasts more than 4 hours he should contact a doctor

Bro 🤣

Wow lol that’s definitely an oddball. Severe case of needing to grease the fifth wheel? 😂

No Sir... We live in SW Florida , but he was rolling West at the time of the accident. He started slowing down, as prior to this the roads were good, and normal travel speed. Matter of fact the wind was tossing him around before the wreck and if he was on ice then the wreck would have happened much sooner. After going under the underpass and clear of the get on ramp on I80 the gust of wind hit him broad sided and thats when he knew he was on ice, slid him over far left and when the left front steer tire him the soft shoulder it layed him over. We have letters and messages, and radars from 7-8-9 pm that show nothing on radar. He had 35-38K of meat in the box... We are now waiting on Pictures (5) from the Officer on scene that got him out of the truck.

Oh I see what you’re saying now.

I definitely sympathize with your husband in that scenario. I used to push the limits in adverse weather and road conditions frequently and I’ve had more knuckle-whitening experiences than I’d like to admit. But, if we’re being honest, that’s exactly what he was doing—pushing the limits. Going full speed with all the warnings Kearsey and you described that day was risky. If he had been going slower he would have been able to slow down more quickly before reaching the ice and choose a course of action that wouldn’t have resulted in him rolling his truck. Or maybe he would have chosen not to get on the road at that time for just a hot meal. I love a hot meal as much as the next guy but now that I have a little more information, it just doesn’t seem that the risk vs reward added up in your husband’s favor on this one.

All of us have made poor choices and taken unnecessary risks at some point in our careers, but like every driver on this thread has said, his best defense will be just taking responsibility for the poor choices he made that day and explaining what he would do differently if he found himself in that situation again.

I apologize for the redundancy. I know I’m more or less summarizing what has already been said on this thread but I didn’t want to ignore your reply. Best of luck to you both. We’d love to know how the review goes in a couple weeks if you wouldn’t mind popping back in and letting us know. Hopefully it goes well and he can keep his job.

Hey Michael I saw your update a few days ago and just wanted to say best of luck. It might not be such a bad thing you’re going into this with your back against a wall. The first year is usually pretty tough for most people and I certainly was no exception. It’s not the driving itself that’s difficult as much as it is the culture shock and generally somewhat lower pay the first year while you’re learning the ropes. I gave myself no other option than to complete my first year at my first company (Swift) without jumping ship and that’s the only thing that really got me through. After that it got a lot easier. Oddly enough it’s the people who try to keep all their options open that usually end up washing out in the first few months and then coming back later and wanting to get back into trucking after their cdl went stale.

Please keep us posted on how things are going

The best advice I can give is just apply everywhere. Freight is slow pretty much industry wide right now still and it’s hard to find good jobs but they are out there. I can’t really give any advice about the rollover at this point since it’s already over and done. Moving forward, his best shot is going to be to take responsibility for his mishaps as opposed to making excuses.

I really don’t want to poke at your story very much because you’re on here asking for help and I’ve given it, but if I’m being honest your version of events is confusing and sounds questionable at best. If I were him I would avoid saying all of that in interviews and on job applications.

I can completely understand how being hit by a gust of wind and simultaneously hitting a patch of ice could cause a rollover. I’ve never had a rollover but that exact situation has happened to me before and and I watched my trailer slide into the next lane over. However…unless I’m misunderstanding you, it sounds like he was on an exit ramp at the time of the rollover. Is that correct? If so, I’m skeptical about this being unavoidable as you claim. Now, obviously I wasn’t there and haven’t seen the video of the incident or anything that would give me a clear idea of what happened, but if this sounds questionable even to me, I guarantee it’s going to sound like a bunch of excuses and lack of responsibility to the safety department of whatever company your husband applies to. That’s why I would just avoid the long explanation if I were him and just keep it simple: “I was unaware of the road and wind conditions on the off ramp and came in too fast for conditions.” He needs to make sure that whoever he speaks with knows that he accepts responsibility for not being cautious enough and that he has learned from his mistake and it will never happen again.

Maybe it was unpreventable…that I don’t know. But he’s not going to get any brownie points from any company’s safety department by trying to prove his innocence.

Pianoman, while I've definitely hauled product to and from Constellium, I don't recall ever visiting that particular location.

Oh ok. If you ever go there let me know! I live about an hour from there now