Has Anybody Here Had A Serious Medical Emergency While Driving?

Does anybody here know anybody here who has had a heart attack or something bad while driving a commercial truck anywhere in North America and especially in a remote area?

I am just curious as to how any driver could summon emergency medical help and how long it might take to get a response in the most rural of places any driver might be in.

I know more than one driver has had serious medical issues on the job over the history of this industry. There was a story years ago about a driver who died from a bee sting because he was allergic to bee sting and a bee got into his cab and stung him on the job.

I am not allergic to bee sting myself but I have a history of heart palpitations, chest pains, faintness and shortness of breath. Last year I did drive my car 2,500 miles, a 1995 Toyota Corolla, with good working factory air, 100,000 original miles. This was in the summer around this time of year. I drove from California, through Oregon up to Washington back down through Idaho and across the HOT 105 degree Nevada desert in broad daylight and back home safe again unscathed even with two BAD tires with some degree of tread separation!!!!!!

In short, I am NOT the least bit scared to drive my little 22-year-old Toyota across the searing Nevada desert. I have a cell phone but it might not work out in those boonies.

Perhaps, Toyota Motor Company should build Class 7/8 trucks with their same level of "famous reliability" they have had in their smaller vehicles for many decades now! My father used to tell me about big diesel trucks like Peterbilt. He said those things never have to be "messed with" (mechanically speaking) for hundreds of thousands of miles. He implied big diesel rigs were built like army tanks and navy battleships and they really should be. Perhaps, truck manufacturers should consider the potential for major lawsuits due to not building mechanically-robust vehicles and such dependability a driver can stake his life upon.

Now MEDICAL emergencies (or the potential for them to happen) are definitely NOT trivial posting topics. Anybody considering this trade should FIRST consider their overall state of health.

One more question, how much should any American company driver expect to be paid on workman's comp should he sustain a work-related disability?

I have been on W/C at least two times in the past for back injury on the job and I only received about 66% of my normal wages.

I have read Brett's literature and stuff like W/C and medical emergencies I did not seem to find there.

Dude, please stop posting! You promised all of us "You were giving up on this Website", so please go away.

Nothing is made like it used to be. My moms 1973 Pontiac lasted 27 years.

Call 911 and pray. But you won't have a job anymore if you have a heart attack, it will void your DOT med card. And hopefully you'd be smart to have bought the disability insurance.

As for workmen's comp...many of these companies are self insured. It gets paid faster...but if you think you will get 100% forget it. And any pre existing condition rules it out.

Read my post on your other thread.

One more thing I didn't mention. The crank handles for the trailers can be really tough to turn. I'm extremely strong with a great strong heart. But there have been handles so hard to turn that I kicked the handle to move it. The heavier the load, the harder to turn.

Sometimes you can stand there for 15 minutes just cranking. Try that in 110 degrees or -10. Its not fun.

There isn't a lot of physical duties on this job, but the ones we do have can be really difficult at times.

This also doesn't go into your special diet which would be hard on the road unless you stop at walmart all the time.

I think maybe you need to reconsider trucking. Sorry.

Dude, please stop posting! You promised all of us "You were giving up on this Website", so please go away.

Well, I changed my mine. That is my "feminine" quality!

Nothing is made like it used to be. My moms 1973 Pontiac lasted 27 years.

Call 911 and pray. But you won't have a job anymore if you have a heart attack, it will void your DOT med card. And hopefully you'd be smart to have bought the disability insurance.

As for workmen's comp...many of these companies are self insured. It gets paid faster...but if you think you will get 100% forget it. And any pre existing condition rules it out.

Read my post on your other thread.

Is the disability insurance offered by an independent carrier or through the hiring company?

Yes, ma'am, I would like to learn more about this disability insurance. I will see what you posted

on my other thread. It might be prudent for any driver to opt for it indeed.

One more thing I didn't mention. The crank handles for the trailers can be really tough to turn. I'm extremely strong with a great strong heart. But there have been handles so hard to turn that I kicked the handle to move it. The heavier the load, the harder to turn.

Sometimes you can stand there for 15 minutes just cranking. Try that in 110 degrees or -10. Its not fun.

There isn't a lot of physical duties on this job, but the ones we do have can be really difficult at times.

This also doesn't go into your special diet which would be hard on the road unless you stop at walmart all the time.

I think maybe you need to reconsider trucking. Sorry.

Some of you "people" posting here could be "bots" for all I know. I won't mention any names. I might just go to my local truck stop and chat with some drivers in person there to really get a FEEL for this line of earning a living. Maybe I will go to my local library and pick up a coupe of books on this subject just to while the time away.

Yes, I am willing to stop or get a cab ride to Walmart or some restaurant in town as much as possible. I definitely want to have good sandwich-making supplies while driving through Nevada whether in my own car or in a truck. Winnemucca has nothing but choke-n-pukes for hot food service. I know that from car traveling experiences in the past. Other posters at this site have already satisfied my curiosity about dealing with meals on the road a month ago. I have this whole food thing down pat now.

If I have a jug of tap water to douse my body, I am sure I can handle the landing gear when it is 115 outside. I have never heard of semi landing gear that is motorized but that might be a nice invention if it ever came to be.

Rule Number One: have at least five one gallon jugs FULL OF WATER in the vehicle (commercial truck or private automobile) while traveling through the desert or mountains all year long. Maybe a two-day food supply to boot.

Perhaps my beef is not so much with this site itself, now that I think about it, but with some posters who can't talk nice. It is cyber-bullying. But I am a tough man. Sticks and stones.....

If I do end up trying out driving, I might report back here once in a while to tell everybody how it is going even.

Bells Palsy. Happened to me while I was driving. Didnt realize until later in the day. My eye was drying out but didn't think anything about it. Was scared I had a stroke. My dad had one and my great grandpa had one. So it was my first thought, thankfully it was just the palsy. Sidelined me for a month.

Perhaps my beef is not so much with this site itself, now that I think about it, but with some posters who can't talk nice. It is cyber-bullying. But I am a tough man. Sticks and stones.....

If I do end up trying out driving, I might report back here once in a while to tell everybody how it is going even.

Your endless nonsensical posts, for someone who hasn't made even the first move on trying to get in - just begins to wear on people.

You can name call all you want - but you will eventually get to the point where folks just stop responding, or you get the ban hammer dropped on you.

Rick

If you feel this site is full of cyber bullying, I can't imagine you've ever been to any other site.

As for going down to the truck stop to get a 'real feel', good luck with that. You'll need it. The drivers sitting around in truck stops are great sources for what NOT to do by just doing the opposite of whatever they tell you, for the most part. Same with around terminals.

As for emergencies, not that you'll end up caring, but response times can be all over the place, even in rural areas. Before trucking I was on two different fire departments that responded to medical calls, both very rural. One ranked in the top 15% of fire departments, paid and volunteer, in the country for response times. The other varied from a couple minutes to nearly an hour, depending on the location and who was available to respond.

Complicating matters tremendously is that there are still a few places that don't have 911 service and instead have a regular phone number you call for emergencies. Not to mention the number of places that don't have cell service. In theory if you have a CB you can use channel 9, but it's quite likely no one is monitoring that channel. That's one of the reasons we get physicals and need to be completely honest during them.