One of my instructors sons was suspended a few months ago for rolling his truck. The company said it was his fault, but for the life of me I cannot see how so I thought I'd put it up for discussion:

He was deadheading through the mid-west when he encountered a thunderstorm. Shoulder signs said no stopping unless an emergency. He slowed down to 20-25mph. Several minutes later a gust of wind (possibly a tornado) struck him and sent the truck on it's side.

Now he said the storm wasn't that severe which would make stopping an illegal act. Also if it was a tornado or jericho, stopping the truck would not have done any good. So my question is - if it was preventable, how do you prevent it?

 

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my guess is that they didnt believe his story for some reason, OR they are one of the carriers that fire drivers anytime they have a wreck, no matter what the reason

 

A driver is expected to prepare for a tornado and steer through the vortex. Jake brakes offer no help in this situation, so being in the proper gear is crucial. Your instructor was clearly unprepared.

Seriously though, without knowing anything about the case, I would suspect that there was probably a curve in the road involved and the company thinks that he's lying. Otherwise, yeah, they might just get rid of anyone who rolls a truck.

 

The accident is considered preventable because the driver was at the controls and potentially could have taken steps to have avoided or prevented the accident from happening. Specifically knowing that he was empty and therefore very light he could have pulled the truck over to the side of the road at the very first sign of high winds in an attempt to wait out the storm.

BTW, if he had pulled over on the shoulder to wait out the storm in an attempt to prevent an accident, ie rollover, it would not have been illegal for him to park there for a short time as it would have constituted an emergency situation. What those signs mean is not to stop on the shoulder of the road to take a nap, take pictures, have a sandwich, etc.

 

I was goin to post a reply, but dont need to.....

.....What Uturn said.

 

I personally would think if the driver was sitting on the side of the road and wind or something would have blown him over he would still have a job. if im not mistaken the company can pull the records for what the truck was actually doing when it was rolled if its not able to be driven and they should also go back and look at the weather reports for that area.
I ran into a similiar situation about two weeks ago comming through chicago real heavy rains and winds i pulled over cause i couldnt see and the truck was just rockin