Rollovers

I had an incident where the front end of the trailer came off my chassis on an onramp ready to merge onto a freeway. It flipped on its side and slid across the freeway. The back end of conatainer was still attached to the chassis. My chassis was still attached to my upright tractor, so the chassis frame was twisted, horizontal on the front, vertical on the back. I was loaded with 35,000 lbs, 60 pallets, so they were doublestacked and top heavy. Freight probably shifted. 1 front pin was disengaged, even though it was engaged during initial pretrip, 3 hours earlier. The other front pin sheered off. Nobody else was involved, so no injuries. No citation by CHP, and no violation upon DOT inspection. I was just getting up speed to merge, 28 mph. I have both in cab and foward facing camera footage. Been truck driving 13 years. PSP, or CSA , only shows DOT inspection for that day. It's been a month. Waiting on DAC report before applying for another job. Company let me go, saying it was a DOT rollover. After trailer was detached from chassis, Chassis straightened out. Couldnt believe it. Was able to drive tractor and chassis off to side of freeway. DOT recommended flatbed tow for safety, so I only drove tractor back to terminal. Is this a rollover? From what I understand, by definition, if nobody else was involved, no injuries, and vehicle able to drive, it shouldn't be classified as a rollover. I'm sure the DAC will say rollover by company. I was waiting on DAC so I could disclose exactly what is reported. So, question, is this a rollover, and should it be disputed if it's reported as such. I'm sure it had to be to fast for conditions, regardless.even I didn't do anything different than I've always done. I'm OCD on my pretrips, and start it by checking that particular pin, the one that was disengaged. Company says I should have done an intrip inspection after the loading was completed, even though I brought the pretripped trailer with me. What are your thoughts? As I'm sure this is going to haunt me on the job search. I am extremely grateful that no one else was involved or hurt, or worse though, as it is on my head! My responsibility!

Glad you’re all right and no one else got hurt either.

Is this a rollover? From what I understand, by definition, if nobody else was involved, no injuries, and vehicle able to drive, it shouldn't be classified as a rollover.

Every legitimate source I could find shows that a rollover is an accident where a vehicle “tips onto its roof or its side.” You said the container flipped on its side and slid across the freeway. So I guess it depends if the container is considered part of the vehicle or not. Frankly unless you get an attorney involved I doubt there’s anything you can do about it at this point. They told you it’s a rollover from their standpoint so that’s what you’re working with right now.

As far as being DOT reportable, a vehicle was towed from the scene so yes it’s a DOT reportable accident.

FMSCA DOT Reportable accident

Due to the way this is worded, my understanding is that it doesn’t matter that you might have been able to drive it away. It matters that you did actually get towed.

What are your thoughts? As I'm sure this is going to haunt me on the job search.

My thoughts are it sounds like you either didn’t do a good pretrip, or you knew you had faulty equipment and you were OCD about your pretrips because you knew it was a ticking time bomb.

Is this an intermodal container on a chassis? Based on your description it sounds like that’s the case, which if it is those locking pins don’t just come undone when they’re locked properly and in good order. That said, I haven’t hauled containers in several years and I only did it here and there so I don’t know much about hauling them. I do know those chassis’s can often be absolute garbage and I don’t know if you’d ALWAYS be able to tell if the locking pins are in good order. Even so, it seems implausible you had no indication that one of the front pins was capable of becoming disengaged and the other one was in bad enough condition it could just be sheared off. I know sometimes freak accidents can happen but this one seems like something you should have been able to catch. Of course I don’t know what actually happened and I wasn’t there but you asked for our thoughts and those are my thoughts.

You’re right, it’ll haunt you badly. I’ve seen multiple people salvage their career after a rollover but it’s not easy. You have to apply everywhere and take anything you can. Be honest and be straightforward about what you learned from this accident and the steps you will take in the future to ensure it doesn’t happen again. That’s the best you can do.

Best of luck

It sounds like the containers that I hauled for 3 years (two different times) going to the Port of Oakland CA every week. If it is a container that is set on a chassis where you have to manually lock down the pins in front, the hooks in back and zip tie all four corners, then yes, if that container even landed partially on its side off the chassis, it IS a rollover.

I have only seen one container on its side near TraPac. The guy did not zip tie the corners, made a right hand turn too fast where it came off the chassis right in the middle of the road where he was turning from on to the crossroad. When they are zip tied, even with the thin ones, it keeps those pins from wiggling out of the locking mechanism.

As Pianoman said, apply everywhere. The economy has tanked, there are too many drivers for the amount of freight and I can attest to not many companies are hiring drivers that have dings on their DAC record. My company laid a bunch of us off 2 weeks ago and looks like they will be shutting their doors in another couple weeks. I've applied to a bunch of different companies and have not gotten return calls. I'm going to a class reunion this weekend, so I'm waiting until next week to start calling companies to see what their hiring situation is. My DAC record is clean, but it looks like hiring has slowed down.

Laura

Thanks for that info Laura. I had no idea drivers are supposed to zip tie them. I would sometimes haul containers back and forth between the American Furniture stores in Colorado back when I had that job but we never zip tied them. Could have happened to me.

Sorry you haven’t had any luck with jobs. Did you try calling Austin? They had tons of work when I was there but it wouldn’t surprise me if they slowed down too