Need Some Advice...

Hey, Optic-man, great to hear from you again, despite the tough TEMPORARY circumstances! Looks like it’s been about 5 weeks, before which a lot of the folks here gave support, empathy and info, with much interest in your journey… In my case, though I’ve even less experience than you and so can’t offer much more than general advice, now that you got through a few weeks of OTR training, I naturally remain very interested, being close to probably following a similar path to yours OTR. So I AM HERE with ya too…

Can’t weigh in about being on the hook for pre-CDL instruction, since that part of our paths differ due to my having gone the pre-paid private school route, but you’ll be finding out all about where you stand on Monday, it looks like from what you wrote. Seems a good strategy there. Meantime man, I can easily tell the experts here are right, so I hope you can take the time this weekend to sufficiently detail what happened out there, especially with the actual accident and such. Immerse into the back-and-forth of discussion of this forum and you won’t regret it. These folks really will be much better able to advise and support ya in the practical ways you need it. Also, writing in detail and sharing it with supportive others can be very psychologically advantageous, give you more strength to cope with crisis, and you need all the strength you can get right now. Plus in the process you’ll be “giving back and paying forward” to your fellow drivers on the path or considering it, with whatever is learnable from the experience that many others can benefit from knowing.

Your situation really doesn’t sound like you should have to be blocked from moving your career forward, but ya just need to get past an unexpected and unfortunate obstacle… Seems you just gotta take the optimistic can-do approach, cuz you really need (I can relate!), and it sounds like you definitely deserve, are payin’ your dues for this to work out well for you to get yourself back on that road to enrichment ASAP! So hang in there, read and reply to the savvy moderators, keep the forum advised and you’ll likely soon be able to look back wisely on all this (as is learned by those who read enough here, e.g., it's already helped me immeasurably to "psyche myself up", harden my skin to the true realities that are coming—like, many have said that SOME stupid accident is almost EXPECTED of rookies)...To see it as simply your version of the sort of extremely educational bump in the road that most new drivers have to hit, one way or another, and emerge all the stronger from it!

I am.guessing here....

But was this a 2 lanes turn left and you were in the outer lane making a left when the car "struck the trailer".? I am guessing you were not looking in the mirror as you turned and hit the car.

Of course the driver may not have realized your lane also turned left and swung wide. I am guessing the company was trying to determine fault.

I find it odd you were terminated for one accident while in training. Did you get tickets or have hard brake events or something other than just this?

I know my math is incorrect, but total 3 accidents in a quad axle, and 2 non-preventable investigated with Werner, O/O, and Swift.... sorry for the correction, IF you went through a "company school then fired, you could go to a private school, IF this isn't a choice, there are other outfits you could try that most "Company schools" would be OK with... Waist management is ALWAYS looking for hiring drivers, they don't look at it as your a "driver" your delivering garbage... a "roll off" truck is like a dump truck more or less... you just put the "box" down on the ground... there is always LTL as an option also, not to mention NON-CDL work that leads to CDL work, it just takes time... there are allot of chances to work in the Driver field, just do not quit looking.... job center, or indeed etc.... someone is looking, might even go to "Covenant Transport" they mandate every driver to team once out of training...

Apologies for the lack of reply...holiday hecticness and some other stuff...but...

I am.guessing here....

But was this a 2 lanes turn left and you were in the outer lane making a left when the car "struck the trailer".? I am guessing you were not looking in the mirror as you turned and hit the car.

Of course the driver may not have realized your lane also turned left and swung wide. I am guessing the company was trying to determine fault.

I find it odd you were terminated for one accident while in training. Did you get tickets or have hard brake events or something other than just this?

No, this was a 4 lane road with a center "suicide" lane. I was turning left onto the 4-lane into the center turn/"suicide" lane. As I was making the turn, 1 car had to slow and had their flashers on, once I noticed my tractor was parallel with in the center lane, I was focusing on the right mirror to watch for traffic to make my merge. That's when I had heard the boom of a car hitting the trailer.

I had multiple witnesses who I heard told the officers on scene that I was in the clear and had no traffic coming either way and the guy that hit me wasn't paying attention.

...........................................................................

I did call HR today and was told that there is no information on any kind of a review being done on me. So my best guess right now is that it was a miscommunication somewhere and it's still in safety's hands. Problem is now, I don't have a direct number to the department of safety that is handling the "investigstion". I've only been told to speak with my DM about it.

I'm still a little confused about the turn. Were you turning from a left turn lane into another left turn lane?

I can't follow your description. It may just be that I'm not familiar with the terminology of "center suicide lane."

I'm still a little confused about the turn. Were you turning from a left turn lane into another left turn lane?

I can't follow your description. It may just be that I'm not familiar with the terminology of "center suicide lane."

2 lanes in each direction - with a center lane for turns (left or right). Suicide Lane - because someone can do a head-on collision in it.

But why would you be turning left - INTO the "suicide lane", instead of into the left-most lane of traffic? Not sure that TURNING INTO A TURNING LANE would be considered LEGAL (even for a 4 wheeler).

I'm suspecting, even with "witnesses" telling the cop it wasn't his fault - it THE TURN ITSELF WASN'T LEGAL (turning into a turn lane) - then IT'S HIS FAULT.

Rick

But why would you be turning left - INTO the "suicide lane", instead of into the left-most lane of traffic? Not sure that TURNING INTO A TURNING LANE would be considered LEGAL (even for a 4 wheeler).

Assuming this is the type of roadway we're talking about In drivers ed (4 wheeler) in Minnesota we were taught that you're allowed to turn into the lane from a business/side street and wait for a break in traffic to continue into one of your 2 legal lanes but you can not drive down that lane. Definitely not a good idea with a tractor trailer due to the amount of space required.

That's what's bothering me. The way Optical described the turn sounds dangerous. I think the best way to make a turn like that would be to wait until you can safely turn into the left driving lane. What's even more confusing is that an intersection like that typically has a traffic light which would make it easy to turn into the proper lane without having to "merge" into the flow of traffic.

After reviewing the description, I see he doesn't say he's turning at an intersection. He could be leaving a customer. I think what he did was legal, but perhaps not the most prudent way to go about it in a big rig. I would definitely wait until I can turn into my desired lane.

So, it seems the company is taking it as me making a u-turn which is why they are reviewing my employment. Though the turn I made was not technically a u-turn as I was completely off the road before making the turn that resulted in the accident, they are still considering it a u-turn. I did communicate that I was following the instructions of my trainer they are saying that since I was ultimately driving it's still on me.

So I am in talks with a close friend to get hired on at his company that runs local routes here in state.

Feeling a lot more relaxed and less stressed as now I know WHY. Now it's just down to getting back to it. I know I've much less than forthcoming with the information about this whole incident but just being able to vent it out and get some sort of feedback had helped me work through this mentally.