Need Some Advice Please.

So I need some advice on a situation. I recently got my CDL a few months ago for my career after my transition out of the Army(I am on transition leave right now). A couple weeks ago I had a sudden black out while driving resulting in a crash. Ended up in the hospital and all that, When I came to. My first thought was did I hurt anyone else (thankfully i was the only one who ended up in the hospital) with only bruises and scraps. Next my thought was it anything that would affect my CDL since this is my only plan after the army and I got a family to take care of....the doc did all the scans and tests said it was nothing like a seizure or anything that shouldn't cause an issue like that...it was a black out due to complete exhaustion,stress. which made sense as I've just uprooted my family and everything I've known for 13 years and moved across the country to start over. I wasnt taking any medication at the time, I had a full night sleep the night before. Didnt feel dizzy or weird before hand either...i remember exiting the freeway and then waking up in the hospital.

Since the crash I've had more tests just to make sure....still all normal I'm as healthy as I was before hand.

3 weeks later I got a ticket in the mail for running a red light, and fail to drive in single lane resulting in a crash. I'm supposed to start my new job soon I've had a near spotless driving record before all this last at fault wreck I had was 2002 and my last ticket was almost 5 years ago.

My question is how bad will this effect my ability to be hired If I just accept it and pay what is demanded, I was also told to get a traffic lawyer to fight it. Since is was a sudden medical issue. I have no issue paying or fighting I'm just extremely worried about the effect it will have on potentially not being able to drive. Like I said this was my main plan for getting out the army and I've busted my ass to get everything thing into position. And now it seems like I can lose all of that.

Any and all advice is welcome. Thank you

That’s a lot of tickets and wrecks. If you want to drive, you need to adjust your bad habits.

CDL through a private school?

Get a lawyer - FIGHT EVERY TICKET.

Unless the cop witnessed it - he cannot testify to it.

You're going to have a difficult time with this recent of an "at fault" accident, getting a hire. Your prior service and clean record is a plus in your favor, but not a guarantee.

Rick

Get a lawyer - FIGHT EVERY TICKET.

Unless the cop witnessed it - he cannot testify to it.

You're going to have a difficult time with this recent of an "at fault" accident, getting a hire. Your prior service and clean record is a plus in your favor, but not a guarantee.

Rick

Thanks. Looks like the plan is to fight it. A close friend said the same thing about the cop witness. Ugh this is such a pain in my ass.

That’s a lot of tickets and wrecks. If you want to drive, you need to adjust your bad habits.

CDL through a private school?

That's alot of wrecks? 2002 was my last one 17 years ago. I am and have been a decent driver. I have pretty good habits I almost never speed or drive like an idiot like most people. And since I got my CDL I've been even more vigilant. This event was out of the blue I don't feel the tickets were deserved.

I got my CDL through a 12 week program that works with transition soldiers. It wasnt a cracker Jack school like ones I've heard of.

Good luck, Pete.

Man, this is one hell of a tough situation. I don't know what you should do, to be honest. I mean, to say you blacked out because of stress and exhaustion is not at all comforting.

For starters, trucking is all about stress and exhaustion. You're putting in tons of hours and you're in a lot of stressful situations. It's also about knowing when you're sharp and capable of driving safely, or knowing when you need to park it because you're unsafe. So there's a lot of judgment calls to make, a lot of stress, and it's very exhausting.

Your situation is impossible to call either way. Will it happen again next week? Will it never happen again the rest of your life? There's no way to know. I think it's safe to say we've all been exhausted and stressed out at times but we didn't just suddenly black out without warning. Obviously if it happens behind the wheel of an 80,000 pound rig you could take out a lot of people in a matter of seconds. It would almost certainly be a complete catastrophe.

Maybe you should consider putting this idea on hold for a little while just to be sure. I mean, this isn't all about you. It's about protecting the innocent families you'll be sharing the highway with. I don't know if it's fair to risk people's lives when you really don't know for sure what's going on or whether or not you're safe behind the wheel.

Risking your own life is one thing. But this is much bigger than just you. I think you should reconsider getting behind the wheel of a rig right now.

Man, this is one hell of a tough situation. I don't know what you should do, to be honest. I mean, to say you blacked out because of stress and exhaustion is not at all comforting.

For starters, trucking is all about stress and exhaustion. You're putting in tons of hours and you're in a lot of stressful situations. It's also about knowing when you're sharp and capable of driving safely, or knowing when you need to park it because you're unsafe. So there's a lot of judgment calls to make, a lot of stress, and it's very exhausting.

Your situation is impossible to call either way. Will it happen again next week? Will it never happen again the rest of your life? There's no way to know. I think it's safe to say we've all been exhausted and stressed out at times but we didn't just suddenly black out without warning. Obviously if it happens behind the wheel of an 80,000 pound rig you could take out a lot of people in a matter of seconds. It would almost certainly be a complete catastrophe.

Maybe you should consider putting this idea on hold for a little while just to be sure. I mean, this isn't all about you. It's about protecting the innocent families you'll be sharing the highway with. I don't know if it's fair to risk people's lives when you really don't know for sure what's going on or whether or not you're safe behind the wheel.

Risking your own life is one thing. But this is much bigger than just you. I think you should reconsider getting behind the wheel of a rig right now.

That's what's eating me up. Is that the risk of it happening again. And in a cmv on top of it. I mean the first thought I had wasnt about me I was worried about if I hurt anyone. I 1000 percent understand your point. I mean I've been exhausted and stressed before while in combat and all the other crap with the military with zero issues but we had time to rest. The 2 months leading up to this event there was no down time and Its my fault I didnt give my self time to sit back and decompress at all. This was the only time this sorta thing has happened. I know I have to put this plan on hold for now which is giving me that lost feeling since for about over a year I've had it all planned out and now I'm at the finish line it's gone in an instant. If I didnt have a family depending on me it wouldn't sting so bad. Sorry for rambling

I'll honestly take your advice....put driving on hold fix this mess.

Sorry for rambling

You're not rambling at all. This is a really serious issue and you obviously have a lot going on in your life. There's a lot to consider. So I totally get how tough this must be.

But obviously you can easily imagine how much worse things would be if it happened behind the wheel of a big rig. Yeah, holding off on your plans would be tough, but it's not nearly as tough as the worst case scenario would be. Right now you have your health, your family, and your entire future ahead of you. You have all the time in the world to get things figured out. If something bad were to happen there would be no erasing it and life might not ever be the same again for a whole lot of people.

Just take your time and work through this. Even waiting a few months might make all the difference. You might find you're perfectly fine or you might figure out what caused it and be able to prevent it from happening again.

I'm an ice climber and I had a friend who took a long fall and nearly killed himself. He said the same kind of thing happened to him. He was climbing perfectly fine and then he thinks he blacked out for a moment. Suddenly he realizes he's falling but he can't understand why. To this day he's not sure what happened, but nothing like that has happened to him again. He'll probably never figure it out.

You might find the same thing. Maybe it was just a one time thing. It's impossible to know at this point. But I think it's worth taking a little time away just to make sure.

Man, this is one hell of a tough situation. I don't know what you should do, to be honest. I mean, to say you blacked out because of stress and exhaustion is not at all comforting.

For starters, trucking is all about stress and exhaustion. You're putting in tons of hours and you're in a lot of stressful situations. It's also about knowing when you're sharp and capable of driving safely, or knowing when you need to park it because you're unsafe. So there's a lot of judgment calls to make, a lot of stress, and it's very exhausting.

Your situation is impossible to call either way. Will it happen again next week? Will it never happen again the rest of your life? There's no way to know. I think it's safe to say we've all been exhausted and stressed out at times but we didn't just suddenly black out without warning. Obviously if it happens behind the wheel of an 80,000 pound rig you could take out a lot of people in a matter of seconds. It would almost certainly be a complete catastrophe.

Maybe you should consider putting this idea on hold for a little while just to be sure. I mean, this isn't all about you. It's about protecting the innocent families you'll be sharing the highway with. I don't know if it's fair to risk people's lives when you really don't know for sure what's going on or whether or not you're safe behind the wheel.

Risking your own life is one thing. But this is much bigger than just you. I think you should reconsider getting behind the wheel of a rig right now.

That's what's eating me up. Is that the risk of it happening again. And in a cmv on top of it. I mean the first thought I had wasnt about me I was worried about if I hurt anyone. I 1000 percent understand your point. I mean I've been exhausted and stressed before while in combat and all the other crap with the military with zero issues but we had time to rest. The 2 months leading up to this event there was no down time and Its my fault I didnt give my self time to sit back and decompress at all. This was the only time this sorta thing has happened. I know I have to put this plan on hold for now which is giving me that lost feeling since for about over a year I've had it all planned out and now I'm at the finish line it's gone in an instant. If I didnt have a family depending on me it wouldn't sting so bad. Sorry for rambling

I'll honestly take your advice....put driving on hold fix this mess.

Here is how I like to think of the situation:

Could you sit in a chair on the edge of a diving board with your hands & feet tied? If you have a health concern that says you couldn't do that for an extended amount of time, then you probably shouldn't be driving .

Obviously, its hyperbole, but if you have health concerns that might cause you to pass out or lose control of your body, then 70 mph with 80,000 lbs is a bad place to test it out.