What To Do Now??? 1 DOT Reportable, 2 Non / Accidents

Topic 6652 | Page 1

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Terry W.'s Comment
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I am a semi new driver, went to Swift driving school and then worked for Swift for a year. In that year I have had some issues. As anyone knows the first year is such a learning process and time. Well I had a what I thought was a accident at first, on a right turn after three months on my own. What happened was I really ran over a fist size rock and pinched the trailer tire and the tire blew. When it blew it bent the rim, making me think I hit the curb or went in the ditch, which caused the rim to be bent. I called safety and reported the what I thought was a accident. I then took a closer look when I was waiting for road service to come repair the tire. I then found no damage on the rim from hitting anything so I looked at to see what could of caused the tire to blow and saw a rock the size of my fist. I had a load that was 42,000 lbs. so when I went to Memphis I showed the shop director the wheel and asked if he thought I had hit anything or if the tire could bend the rim like this when it blew. He said their was no damage and the tires have 110 psi and definitely caused the damage to the rim. I spoke to safety and also told them that the supervisor of the shop looked at the evidence and what he said. Their reply was that it was found to be preventable and that was how it would be reported, end of story. No investigation, as they said their would be. Well their investigation was my statement I made when I reported the accident. So I learned so lessons here. One whatever you tell safety, be sure of all the facts, being a new driver I never thought the tire could bend a rim like it did when it blew. Safety is going to take your statement as most of the evidenced in their investigation and will not change it later, because they say drivers try to make it some other reason for the accident. One accident I'll have to deal with that. Six months later I'm less than 2 miles from the shipper and I pull away from a stop sign thru an intersection look to my right and back to my left and then bang. T-boned by a four wheeler. It was my fault, I never saw the four wheeler. I felt terrible, the four wheeler must of been in my mirror and I didn't lean forward and back to double check and pulled thru the intersection. The four wheeler had no stop sign. Lesson learned, slow down make sure to double check blind spots. No ticket for me but it came back as preventable DOT. I can accept that accident, and made changes to never have that happen again. Three months later I'm at a shipper, I've been out 5 weeks, out of HOS for the day, trying to back in a dock door and having problems. I get out to look and the driver on the passenger side comes over and tells me to make sure I don't hit him, he wasn't even what I was close to. But he then went in to the shipper and told them I hit their truck that was on my left. The shipper comes out and tells me they watched me hit it and needed to make a report. How do you reply to an out right lie. I took pictures and spoke to safety and gave my side to them. Number 3 preventable for me was the out come. The truck had a scratch that I think was from the driver scraping something. It did not match up with anything on my truck. Well my questions is what companies would hire me now. I've been working doing drive away work for the last 6 months, no incidents is accidents their. Or can I dispute the info on my DAC about the other two non DOT reportable accidents. Any input as what to do or companies that would give me another chance would be great.

Shipper:

The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.

DOT:

Department Of Transportation

A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.

State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.

DAC:

Drive-A-Check Report

A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).

It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.

Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
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