Drivers' Corner - Caring in Action

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Have you ever felt like a sitting duck? A driver was traveling southbound on I-45 near Madisonville, Texas heading for Houston for his delivery the next morning. It was beginning to turn dark.

Suddenly, his unit was shutting down intermittently on its on. He clutched and pulled over to the emergency lane and the engine died completely. His attempts at restarting were to no avail.

He immediately got out of his tractor and set his triangles. He did not have a cell phone so he looked for a phone. There was a service station down the road about a half-mile, so he began his walk to report to his dispatch.

He had gone about a 1/4 of a mile when he heard the screeching of brakes and the deadening thud of a collision. Looking back, he saw that a car had run into the back of his trailer and there was smoke everywhere.

He ran back to help but could not approach the vehicle due to the fire that had enveloped the area. Two people were either killed instantly or burned to death in the accident.

A tragedy of this magnitude teaches us several things:

1. By law, we are a hazard to the flow of traffic even when we are on the emergency lane with an emergency. The accident would not have occurred had this driver not been there.
2. Stay with the unit and use a flashlight to help traffic see you. Choose a place where you can escape injury should it become necessary. You might want to consider making a cell phone a permanent part of your equipment to summon help.
3. If possible, when shutting down, try to make it to a place where you can get your unit completely off the paved surface.

That's the way I see it - Bob Hataway - Trans Alive.

 

Bob Hataway is president of TransAlive USA, an organization of 100,000 volunteers across America dedicated to serving drivers and their families in the transportation industry through their Caring in Action=Safety Program. They cover every zip code in the United States and move quickly to meet the needs of the drivers and their families when they experience an accident, illness, heart attack or even death on the highway. Call 800-USA-HURT for assistance.