Profile For Lionheart13

Well Brett, I guess it is a very good thing you guys aren't the judge or jury. I mean, if you guys cannot see that the other guy broke the traffic laws, then the situation is hopeless. I have admitted to my lack of diligence but you guys can't admit that the other guy broke the laws. It's all good. Whatever...

I am not worried about court or anything of the sort. All I was wondering was if Stevens had the right to take my money without due process. For all I know, they could even be double-dipping. I figured someone here could enlighten me on any rights or recourse I may have. I guess I was wrong.

But I'll tell you what, there are still a lot of missing pieces and I won't know a thing until the guy at Stevens decides to answer his phone, or I get the report from CHP. For now I will let them take the $50 because I am on the road and can't fight this front right now. But I will report back to you guys whether I was found in the right or wrong. Then we will see what the reactions here will be. I have a pretty good idea what they will be already...

Farmer, I appreciate your input. The damage to the other vehicle was negligible. Mostly some scraping and light fender damage. It was a rental. So I doubt there was any major negotiation between the insurance companies.

As for taking it to court, I doubt the other party would even dare because if they did, we would whip their ass good. Remember, I had an unbiased 3rd party witness who collaborated everything.

And I never once said that the right lane was occupied when I made the move. I have always contented that I made the move FIRST. If he would have been in my mirror, I never would have moved.

G-Town, first of all, my "daddy" was blue collar. And you don't know me so stop assuming. You are the one being disrespectful. I've LOST more "chops" than you'll ever HAVE.

And learn how to READ. The space was occupied by ME. He was not there when I initiated th move. GET IT? He was on my LEFT and BEHIND. He was in a hurry and was trying to pass another vehicle that was blocking him. When he realized that, he swung over two lanes, into the trucker's lane, passing on the right. He then left the scene and came back a short while later. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU WANT ME TO POST THE LINK TO THE CALIFORNIA STATUTES?

I don't know what the cop did because he separated us. The cop did mention to me that the kid told him, "I had the choice to speed up or slow down. I chose to speed up." What does that tell you?

"Hide behind the law." You CLOWN. You just inadvertantly admitted that I was ABIDING by the law.

Lionheart, please look at this from a different perspective: I'm going to preface it with a real-world example, using my wife. We live in a foreign country where the drivers are INSANE. Yes, the laws here do state that pedestrians have right-of-way, but the traffic laws are laughingly referred to as 'suggestions.' Not kidding; people turn left against red lights, blow thru stop signs, pass in the ONCOMING traffic lane, expecting oncoming traffic to slide over onto their shoulder. Back to my wife; she will cross the street where she legally has the right-of-way, daring cars to hit her. I pull her back when I can. I tell her all the time, you're going to be laid up in traction in the hospital, all four limbs in casts, suspended in the air, claiming... "but I had right-of-way!" In a nutshell, that's you in this situation. Legally you may have been in the right, but what everyone is trying to make you understand is that you still had the opportunity to avoid the collision. My wife has the opportunity to just not cross the street until it is clear. She, by the way, initially sided with your argument. But I told her, that you should not have stopped checking your mirrors until the maneuver was completed. If this had been done you would have seen the car coming up on your right. If there's an industry where following the legal letter of the law can end very badly for you and others, it's trucking. I've read countless times in The High Road Training Course that while speed limits are posted, a truck should not be driving that fast under various circumstances (i.e. around curves). Simply being right here isn't good enough. Truckers are held to higher standards; they just are.

Pete, I appreciate your tone. Believe me, I didn't want to hit the guy just because the law was on my side. If I had been more diligent, I would have avoided it. However, I DIDN'T. So now I have to fall back on the legal side. That is all I was trying to convey. I ADMIT I should have looked again. That is not in question. But since I didn't, now I have to explore the legal side. If I am found NOT AT FAULT, does Stevens have the RIGHT to take my money? THAT was the original question. These guys want to IGNORE the protection I am getting from the laws which are DESIGNED to protect not just us, but the whole motoring public.

Did you see what that other guy just wrote? "Go hide behind the law". LOL. How can I fight a guy like that. Laws that are there to protect, not to hide behind.

You guys DO REALIZE that the other guy broke the traffic laws don't you? Put it this way, in court he would LOSE. HE WOULD LOSE. Do I need to cite other cases as precedents? I can show you guys cases that would clearly side with me, yet you people would STILL villify me. Because you need to get your way. Because of your mob mentality. I am talking about LEGALITY here. Could I have made more effort? YES! But when I changed lanes HE WAS NOT THERE. GET IT? Does that mean I would lose in court? NO! And that is what my whole rant was about. ABOUT THE LEGAL SIDE OF IT. So let me pose to you guys another scenario: I DO check my mirrors throughout the whole meneuver, and notice him swing around and try to pass. HOWEVER, I can't do anything because another guy just took the hole I vacated and now I can't get back. Now what?

The guy almost killed himself and his girl. He was the aggressor. He could and SHOULD have backed off. I was in the lane already and going to my spot, BEFORE he got there. Read up on your DOT commercial traffic laws.

Once again, could I have prevented it? OF COURSE. In retrospect, I should have kept checking the mirror. But I also had to keep my eyes on the road because it was afternoon traffic, which was my error. As truckers, I UNDERSTAND we are held to higher standards. HOWEVER, I broke no laws---he did. Did I mention he also LEFT THE SCENE and came back a half hour later, right after the cop got there? I believe that is against the law also. I wonder why he panicked...Hmmm.

As for Stevens, EVEN if I were at fault, they are OVER-CHARGING. They do this because they are accustomed to doing whatever they want to their drivers. Because a lot of them are novices and they don't expect them to fight back. There are protocols that need to be followed---they can't just do whatever the hell they want. I am pretty sure I am going to win this and when I do, I will let you guys know, just so yous can eat a little crow. And if I lose, I will post it also. There is a reason drivers are bailing out on them left and right. There is a reason there were over 60 loaded trailers in their yard two weeks ago, late because they had no drivers.

I'll give you the good also, so you can see I am not biased. They have GREAT training. If you can hack it out and jump through all the hoops, you will have a huge advantage over other rookies. That is the reason I went with them. I sacrificed money for the training program. They also have good equipment.

That's it. Peace...

Damn, you people really surprised me with your "vigilante" response. You all ganged up on me like a bunch of piranhas. So let me respond quickly and be done with it because I'm not gonna start a back-and-forth narrative here.

Could I have prevented the accident? ABSOLUTELY. Should I have checked the mirrors throughout the whole maneuver? PROBABLY. I admitted to this to the safety director at Stevens when I met with him. Does that mean I'm at fault? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The perpetrator tried to pass me on the right, which is against Cali state law. (Yes, I looked in their statutes before I took my stance.) Also, he went into the slow-moving vehicle lane doing 70 mph. He was BEHIND me on the LEFT, which means he shot over TWO lanes. This is an unsafe lane change, also against Cali law. He ADMITTED that he speeded up INSTEAD of slowing down when he saw me make the move. So before you people eviscerate me, educate yourselves because it is amazing that some of you here with so many years of experience run your mouths without taking the time to learn the law. Also, there are DOT traffic laws which even supercede state traffic laws. The 50% rule comes to mind. (For those of you who don't know it, look it up yourselves.) Basically you GENIUSES, if I was at fault, I would have gotten the ticket.

As far as my ego and attitude, nothing wrong there. If I am wrong, I admit it. I've always been open to accountability. I stated to the cop and to the couple that I was just happy that nothing happened to them. But you guys don't know the whole story because I am not going to write a novel about the incident.

As for Stevens, they are buffoons for a lot of reasons. But you guys wouldn't know unless you worked there. And I'm referring to how things are done, not things that have happened to me. And I am gracious enough to leave the other stuff out, so as not to bash them. The fact is, I received no notification, due process or even a phone call as to the status of the case, nor their stance. This is UNPROFESSIONAL. This website is called "Trucking Truth", but that title is a fallacy as long as you have your policy of obfuscating the realities that are out there. If you are going to show the light, you have to show the darkness as well. All is not "rainbows and unicorns". Maybe this website should be called, "Trucking Half-Truths" instead.

Hello fellow truckers. I am a novice driver working for Stevens Transport at the moment. Since I am a rookie driver, I was wondering if one of you seasoned road warriors can enlighten me and maybe point me in the right direction. This past November I got into a minor accident out in Cajon Pass in California. I was heading south on I-15 a couple of miles to go for the summit. I was in the right lane (I believe there were three lanes) and had just down-shifted to 7th to start the climb. I noticed that a trucker lane was coming up on the right, so I signaled, checked all the mirrors, and moved over since no one was behind me on my right. How could there be, the lane had just opened up!?

I was almost completely in the lane when I heard a faint "screech" and a "crunch". My left hand flew off the wheel, but other than that, the tractor didn't budge. I was like, "What the HELL was that?" Then I noticed a white A4 limping off to the side. Apparently, I had squished him against the Jersey wall on the right. Very minor damage. The 20-something year old kid gets out, along with his girlfriend. Both were viisibly shaken.

The guy says to me, "I thought we were gonna die."

The girl says, "How can you just slam us into the wall like that? What kind of person are you?"

I replied, "Where did you two come from? You weren't there when I made my move."

The guy admitted that he was going 70+ mph (I was doing 45 tops). He admitted to me (and to the CHP), "I had a choice whether to speed up or slow down; I chose to speed up." They made me out to be the bad guy however, due to the impact point being so far up the rig, all the way to the tractor. Luckily, for whatever reason, I DIDN'T GET THE TICKET.

There was another trucker following behind who witnessed everything. He pulled over and gave me his number. When I called him, he told me that the Audi was actually behind me in the LEFT lane, moving "in a hurry". He was blocked so he actually swung around my ass two lanes to try to pass me on my right, as I was moving to the right. When the other trucker saw that, he knew he wasn't going to make it.

So now the problem: although I didn't get the ticket and the accident was obviously not my fault, Stevens is deducting $50 from my settlements until they get $2000 from me. The in-house insurance guy gave me no due process, no notice, no nothing. When I talked to him immediately after the incident, he claimed that the impact point was not favorable for me. By the way, the damage to my truck was less than $500. The major thing was the passenger door step rail ($189) at Rock Auto. The work was done in the yard.

What can I do about this? I am about to take off the gloves but a little guidance would help. Either way, I have decided to dump this buffoon of a company. I can tell you folks MANY things about them but I realize that this site doesn't condone that talk. Looking forward to some feedback.

US 95 from Winnemucca, NV to Ontario, OR. Especially beautiful is the part that cuts into Idaho for a spell. I was stunned and wanted to stop the truck at least a dozen times. I actually saw a grey wolf on the side of the highway just before entering Oregon in Nevada.

Also, I-15 as it enters Utah from Arizona. Amazing.

I empathize with you. I am a rookie driver with Stevens and went through the same ordeal with my first two trainers. My first one showered twice in 15 days. My second one showered 3 times in 14 days. My third trainer was a godsend. I am not going to go into details here because this website doesn't condone "bad-mouthing". But I will say that I could write a nice little tabloid about that company. Anyway, getting back to the topic, there is NO EXCUSE for not showering regularly. If you are in a truck stop for 10 hours, there is more than enough time to get that done. I was not shy about going to my counselor and higher-ups about my experience with my first two trainers.

It is a student's duty to let the brass know what is going on out there on the road with the trainers. Some people are afraid to come forward because they fear retribution or getting branded a "rat". The thing is, if no one comes forward, then the problem(s) will never be fixed. One has to be brave. Some trainers do not deserve to be trainers. They just use the students to get their mileage pay, without any regard or desire to teach. And the hygiene thing is an issue that is common. It is inconsiderate and unprofessional for a trainer to put his student through this. I actually had to pay for a shower on a couple of occasions, because when I would ask for one, my trainer would give me some smart-ass sarcastic comment. This, even though they get free team showers. To have no self-respect is their problem. But when it affects me, or worse yet, when they expect me to follow suit, then it is unacceptable and I have to take action. There were times that I felt embarrassed and even ashamed when going to a shipper or receiver because my trainer looked like a hobo and smelled like a wildebeest.

Hopefully, Stevens did something about it. I hope you get your problem fixed, because I have been there and it is no fun at all.