Are truck drivers under qualified?

[tgstubbs1]

I feel sorry for the guy but witnesses said he didn't seem to be trying to slow down, instead passing several emergency ramps

Unfortunately the sentence won't do much to help the victims or their families.

I don't know if he had a GPS, which could have warned him of the upcoming "deadman's curve" which could be programmed as a POI.

Regulations should be passed to ensure that the best equipment available should be used to prevent this kind of accident.

 

[Siegmund]

I'd say the majority of them drove like idiots. And saw themselves as the "knights of the road" but they were anything but.

I somehow suspect that if you could turn back the clock a thousand years and see real live knights in action, you'd see a handful of chivalrous gentlemen, and a whole bunch of guys raping and pillaging for their own amusement.

 

[MilwaukeeRoadLover]

I guess I'm curious about this image of truck drivers in the past being the great "knights of the road" excellent drivers. I think it's myth myself. My mother was in shipping for a meat packing company for years when I was a kid and she knew all the truck drivers who ran shipments to/from her plant. She was a single parent and we lived in the Southeast but my father and rest of our family lived in the Midwest so we needed to go north for summers and winter breaks. To save money my mother asked drivers to let her kids hitch rides every summer and winter for years. My brother, sister and I would all get north that way, usually separately. So from about 1982 to 1987 I rode with truckers about four times a year, sometimes more. Let me tell you, they were crazy dangerous guys back then. Excessive speeding, tailgating, taking the left "no trucks" lane, you name it. I'd say the majority of them drove like idiots. And saw themselves as the "knights of the road" but they were anything but. I also don't think they've ever been held to a higher standard.

In practice, I don't see this. I see trucks hogging multiple lanes on the highway, crowding out cars, tailgating. I year for the time of the trains when freight had their own road.

 

[west point]

2It may be some of the protesting truckers are worried that if they get caught they will suffer a similar fate in light of their offense? Frankly that sentenced driver gave 90% of good drivers a bad name.

 

[cirdan]

Can't speak for truck drivers in general but my Dad's girlfriend has several truck drivers in her family and although I don't know how they drive, they are all extremely generous, warm-hearted and helpful people who work hard and long hours, often for little recognition, and carry a lot of pressure and blame and are basically on their own when something goes wrong, for example if they deliver late or if something is wrong with the paperwork or something gets damaged. I wouldn't want to change jobs with them.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Can't speak for truck drivers in general but my Dad's girlfriend has several truck drivers in her family and although I don't know how they drive, they are all extremely generous, warm-hearted and helpful people who work hard and long hours, often for little recognition, and carry a lot of pressure and blame and are basically on their own when something goes wrong, for example if they deliver late or if something is wrong with the paperwork or something gets damaged. I wouldn't want to change jobs with them.

"I do not know how my father's girlfriend's brother actually drives but..."

Your post sounds like the start of a joke about completely misunderstanding the problem. I do not think all truckers are bad people or that they're worse at driving than regular drivers. The problem is that they're no better than other drivers despite putting more lives at risk with their enormous heavy rigs.

 

[Willbridge]

In the meantime, the Texas owner of the trucking company has re-incorporated under a different name.

Owner of trucking company in I-70 crash tied to newer trucking business (msn.com)

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

In the meantime, the Texas owner of the trucking company has re-incorporated under a different name.

Owner of trucking company in I-70 crash tied to newer trucking business (msn.com)

Which is strange as this issue was address by the FMCSA a few years ago. Company Officials are prevented for doing this type of reset. However since it was done the day after the accident it was probably missed by the system in place. Even more strange is how the new company still has the same problem as the old one did. You think a small outfit such as this (4 drivers) would stop operations for a few hours, and have all equipment shopped for brake inspection.

 

[tgstubbs1]

Can't speak for truck drivers in general but my Dad's girlfriend has several truck drivers in her family and although I don't know how they drive, they are all extremely generous, warm-hearted and helpful people who work hard and long hours, often for little recognition, and carry a lot of pressure and blame and are basically on their own when something goes wrong, for example if they deliver late or if something is wrong with the paperwork or something gets damaged. I wouldn't want to change jobs with them.

It sounds like the Governor might look into reducing his sentence.

There is some pressure on drivers that put the public at risk.

"According to the American Trucking Associations, the lobbying organization for large trucking employers, the US has a shortage of 80,000 truck drivers that is disrupting the nation’s supply chains, and the shortages are projected to worsen over the next few years.

This claim has been repeated consistently over the years and has recently been cited by industry groups in favor of a bill in Congress to lower the commercial driver’s license age requirement from the age of 21 to 18. But truck drivers are quick to highlight the low pay, poor treatment, and poor working conditions they endure throughout the industry as prevailing issues for employers who claim to have trouble finding and retaining enough drivers.

“The industry has recycled this narrative about every three months for over 20 years. There is no truck driver shortage,” said Desiree Wood, the president of Real Women in Trucking. “It is indeed a pay shortage and work conditions issue.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/27/us-truck-drivers-economy-pay-conditions

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

There's labor shortages across the board, even in non-public-facing professions, why would trucking be any different?

Interestingly, I've been watching a lot of "snow fail" videos which led to dashcam footage and there seems to be as much bad truck driving abroad as there is here - I find that driving in general has gotten much, much worse since covid entered the picture (personal theory is new drivers avoiding transit, legalized marijuana and lack of enforcement - I see far more accidents per day than say two years ago).

 

[MARC Rider]

- I find that driving in general has gotten much, much worse since covid entered the picture (personal theory is new drivers avoiding transit, legalized marijuana and lack of enforcement - I see far more accidents per day than say two years ago).

Well, I don't know about the states where cannabis has been legalized, but the quality of driving here in Maryland has certainly gone down, and we haven't legalized recreational cannabis. Most of the things I have to deal with are aggressive driving, people trying to pass with insufficient space, people running red lights (although I've noticed that as a local problem since I moved to Maryland in 1979), people pulling out of drives and cross streets too quickly, speeding (but more like idiots doing 50 -60 in a 35 mph zone, not people doing 80-90 on the freeway), changing lanes without signaling, and such like that. These are all mostly car drivers, by the way.

The real problems with truckers are the delivery and specialized haulers that don't seem to realize that a fully loaded dump truck (for example) can't be driven like a sports car. The only real problem I have with the long-haul drivers in the 18-wheelers is that they sometimes hog the left lane trying to pass on an uphill, and there are a few drivers of empty flatbed tractor-trailers that, like the dump truck drivers, don't realize they're not in the Monaco Grand Prix.

 

[tgstubbs1]

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/12...r-truck-driver-rogel-aguilera-mederos-prison/

"However, crash survivor Valerie Robertson-Young has advocated for at least 50 years — saying Aguilera-Mederos approached her after the wreck, asking to use her phone. She claims he said he needed to get away."

 

[west point]

Had to buy something at or local Loves. Talking to several drivers. One thought sentence was correct. Others worried if they did something dumb causing death, they would get the similar sentence.

 

[Willbridge]

Had to buy something at or local Loves. Talking to several drivers. One thought sentence was correct. Others worried if they did something dumb causing death, they would get the similar sentence.

That's a good summary of what is discussed in Colorado. The main issues that are usually not well understood from condensed national reporting are: mandatory minimum sentences that tie judges' hands intentionally, the multiple fatalities, and the multiple chances that Aguilera-Mederos had to prevent the accident.

I served on a Denver jury civil case involving an accident that was preventable with common sense. There wasn't a person on the jury who had not driven the stretch of road involved and the only real debate was how much damages to award (which is why it went to trial). I would not be surprised if most of the jury in the trucker's case had driven that stretch of highway previously and wondered where his head was given the decisions he failed to make. On the other side of the coin, I'm sure they and the judge would have preferred a less extreme sentence.

 

[John from RI]

Moving freight with railroads enabled us to win the Civil War and 2 World Wars. Then General Eisenhower led the invasion of Europe in 1944 and he thought it would be ever so nice if only the US had its own Autobahn, just like Germany. When he became President he built the US Defense and Interstate Highway System. Today America would be unthinkable without these highways. But creating them trashed the world's best railroad system. While railroads had their own problems they also had massive government problems dating back to the early 20th century. Finally they could no longer compete with taxpayer built highways which were, in part, built with the taxes the railroad companies had to pay. They almost went completely bankrupt. Finally, just before disaster truck, we managed to save a skeleton system, a fraction of what we had. But we are worse off for all that we have lost.

As long we continue our dependence on trucks to move so much over the road long distance freight we are going to have highway related accidents. We can say "ain't it awful." We can incarcerate guys who struggle to earn an honest living driving a truck. And the accidents will continue. Trains have accidents too. But they also have a much much better safety record.

 

[BlackDiamond]

Agreed, John. But unfortunately the freight railroads seem to be shooting themselves in the foot with policies such as PSR, at a time when the truck driver shortage should give them a chance to increase market share.

 

[Deni]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/30/us/colorado-truck-driver-sentence-rogel-aguilera-mederos.html