34 years of safe driving.. one horrible day..

[Popinski]

34 years of truck driving and now this guy is in jail for one accident. I wonder if justice is being served. I still need some more information.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100625/NEWS/100629866

Be careful out there, people. You, too, can be a safe driver and one day and one mistake can lead to a lifetime of hurt..

 

[d00df00d]

You're not insinuating that his record should mitigate his guilt, are you?

 

[bradepb]

caption on picture says he is from Minnesota but article says Rochester Hills MI?

 

[PandaBear]

Based on what that article said, he made a panic mistake. I don't think he is causing 209 crashes directly but this is more of an environmental / situational causes. I hope he is going to come out ok, as his attempted suicide is really giving him enough punishment for this.

 

[Popinski]

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
You're not insinuating that his record should mitigate his guilt, are you?


I don't even know if he's at fault. I was involved in a hit-and-run before. I was hit by an Excursion that was going well over the speed limit. One "witeness" told police that I was driving recklessly. I thank God the other witnesses told the officers the truth.

 

[d00df00d]

Agreed. Just wanted to make sure.

 

[Gary Allan]

Straighten me out here.... I've tried to read this three times and it doesn't come out right in my head.

Blackburn said he was driving in Fulton County, Ohio, on June 8 when a Ford Escape approached him from the opposite direction and was about to hit him head-on. He said he turned sharply to the left, causing the Ford to hit him in his passenger side rather than head-on.

“A police officer on scene came up to me afterward and told me I saved that woman's life,” he said.

Can I take it that ^this^ accident is 100% totally unrelated to v-this/these-accidents-v? I mean it's obvious, but it looks fragmented for continuity. What does some accident in Fulton County, Ohio got to do with this?

Police have given this account of the 8 p.m. crash: Four vehicles were stopped for a red light facing north bound when a tractor-trailer driven northbound and in the right lane by Blackburn failed to come to a stop and rear-ended a Mini Cooper driven by Susan Erben.

The Mini Cooper then struck a Chevrolet Corvette operated by Wilmington Del., resident Enrique Guttin before crossing the intersection and into a guardrail.

The Corvette was pushed into the left lane and struck a Chrysler 300. After striking the Mini Cooper, the tractor trailer continued straight and struck a Hyundai Santa Fe operated by East Stroudsburg resident Sheila Chelnik and her passenger, Brett Chelnik.

The Hyundai was pushed into the intersection and the tractor trailer went off of the roadway striking the traffic control light pole and guardrail and then caught on fire. The traffic control light pole then fell down upon the Hyundai.


Why in the heck are the two even in the same article?

 

[CivicFan]

It was a very poorly written article. it was unclear whether the Ford Escape accident and the other accidents happened the same time.

 

[DrinkDuff77]

Agreed, the article is very confusing. So he had an accident with the Ford Escape in OH on June 8th and then another accident in Stroud Township PA on Thursday June 24th?

 

[Popinski]

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100624/NEWS/100629884

 

[defektes]

This article was written by a moron. I had to read it like 4 times to understand it.

 

[greenaccord02]

That article was written by an idiot. I try not to be overly critical of others writing abilities, and I have to admit that a sequence of this nature is a difficult one to recount, but this guy is just terrible.

 

[d00df00d]

This article was written by a dolt. I had to try to find another euphemism to keep the trend going.

 

[occupant]

Ouch. I have a story to relate. While bringing my kids home from town one day I found myself staring into the grille of a Mack mobile home toter who was passing a car over the double yellow line. I made it into the ditch pretty hard without getting hit and I got stuck. A family friend HAPPENED to be passing by and pulled me out.

I don't think all truck drivers are bad. Just the ones who have no regard for safety or accountability. I didn't get a chance to see what company that truck was from but they're out of somewhere in Louisiana. If I see it again I'll file a complaint with FMCSA. If it's out here in the middle of nowhere, it'll come through here again.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: occupant
Ouch. I have a story to relate. While bringing my kids home from town one day I found myself staring into the grille of a Mack mobile home toter who was passing a car over the double yellow line. I made it into the ditch pretty hard without getting hit and I got stuck. A family friend HAPPENED to be passing by and pulled me out.

I don't think all truck drivers are bad. Just the ones who have no regard for safety or accountability. I didn't get a chance to see what company that truck was from but they're out of somewhere in Louisiana. If I see it again I'll file a complaint with FMCSA. If it's out here in the middle of nowhere, it'll come through here again.


Yikes!

 

[eljefino]

They say if you have someone coming at you head-on in your lane you should still make every effort to get over to the right, in case they come to their senses and then go back in their lane at the last second.

Aside from fight-or-flight reflexes, if you wind up dodging left and meet the other car at your passenger headlights, it'll be a game of he-said, she-said.

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
They say if you have someone coming at you head-on in your lane you should still make every effort to get over to the right, in case they come to their senses and then go back in their lane at the last second.

Aside from fight-or-flight reflexes, if you wind up dodging left and meet the other car at your passenger headlights, it'll be a game of he-said, she-said.



Here's one for you. My Rabbit diesel was 3 months old. I was traveling on a straight away and a car is coming in the other direction. This is about a half mile straight section of a pretty major thoroughfare. It's like 2:30am. The car coming the other way was one of those short lived short tailed LTD's that were not at all stable once upset. I reason that he must have floored it and crossed it up. There may have been some icy patches involved. Nothing that driving normally would have challenged on a straight away.

Anyway, he came down the road broadside, mostly in the right (my) lane. As we ended up, his full body was blocking my lane and a portion of my Rabbit was sitting with the tail end in what would be his lane.

Can you belief that there were actually observers trying to figure out that it was my fault since my tail end was in his lane? It was as though his car was invisible.

That was the beginning of my formation of the concept that if you can't compensate for someone else's decompensation, it's your fault. You're supposed to account for their inability to cope. If you can't, your inability to cope with their inability to cope is an inexcusable flaw, since you're allegedly normal.