Hit And Run Rant

I dont understand how somebody can knowingly cause damage and flee the scene instead of taking responsiblity for it. The consequences will always be much worse and if I'm not mistaken you can lose your CDL for a minimum of a year. Not to mention being out of a job and likely unemployable anywhere else due to skyrocketing insurance premiums and poor judgement. On wednesday in cental iowa we had a decent amount of freezing rain. There was a major carrier truck that jackknifed and rolled over on 80/35. While police were dealing with that another truck from a major LTL carrier plowed into a sheriffs deputy vehicle AND TOOK OFF! I haven't heard more about it but I cant imagine it would be hard finding the driver by contacting that company and seeing who was in the area, as well as tractor and trailer numbers.

Kcci news story this particular story doesnt mention it but a previous story mentioned the truck would have significant damage to the Driver side front end. Thankfully the deputy was able to run to safety. Unfortunately with drivers doing things that cause media attention in a negative way as well as all the wrecks I've seen on I80 in iowa the last couple weeks it isnt helping to change the public's perception of truckers.

I did not include the trucking company names because honestly they dont matter. It's not the companies fault, the drivers involved are at fault.

Glad nobody was hurt, I do not understand what he or she was thinking what would probably be a ticket for failure to reduce speed and maybe a few other things turned into a hit and run on a police car, they will now face jail time and definitely will be unable to find another CDL job.

I saw what company it was in one of my FB trucking groups. As of this morning, the truck has not been turned in yet. As much damage as there is to the patrol car, that truck sustained a fair amount also. I hope the company does the right thing and get the driver turned over to LE.

Laura

I hope the company does the right thing and get the driver turned over to LE.

Laura

Yeah, hopefully after they tar and feather that "driver".

FB post says it was FedEx, so I'll chime in here. It was not the LTL carrier.

I can tell you for certain it was not FedEx freight or FedEx Express. FedEx owned vehicles have cameras that will alert FedEx of any impact or emergency braking. Also, we slip seat. Guaranteed, somebody would've noticed some damage.

You're looking at FedEx ground or custom critical, which use independent contractors. As a result, FedEx does not know the conditions of the tractors and they aren't aware of any motor vehicle accidents until it shows up on the driver record. Without trailer numbers or a license plate there is no way for FedEx to track it due to the volume of trucks going back and forth on major highways.

Banks that's what I thought as well, I'm sure ground would be able to track it by trailer numbers though if LEO knows them to find who was assigned that load. I'm actually surprised that nobody on the scene went after them or radioed for another department to wait down the highway.

The other day I had my 1 year review. The only knock I had was my incident but even that wasnt held against me other than getting a 4 instead of 5 for safety. It recorded me as having 1 hard brake back in october that nobody had previously talked to me about so we discussed it at this time. I slowed from 23 to 2 in 4 seconds gradually and for some reason marked it as hard brake. Anyways, I say that to show how detailed these systems are. He was able to see exactly where I was in satellite view so we could figure out what likely happened as I cant remember something from months ago. He plugged in what date and time it marked that event and it pulled up everything you could want to know about that even what my logs looked like (to see if fatigue is possibly a factor). Unfortunately with the news reporting "a (company) semi truck hit and ran a patrol car narrowly missing a deputy" people immediately will think it's the companies drivers and not somebody contracted to run their loads. Either way it makes that company look bad. With Ground is it usually 1 contractor that operates each terminal that then hires drivers or is it like 100 different O/O contractors?

With Ground is it usually 1 contractor that operates each terminal that then hires drivers or is it like 100 different O/O contractors?

No 1 contractor runs a terminal because it would give them too much leverage. If a contractor wants multiple lanes, they'll usually get spread out to other terminals.