Hit at the dock — truck driver’s fault or not?

Updated Nov 25, 2014
Truck driver John Doe was making a delivery to Fiesta Fresh restaurant when a pink Mustang slammed into him in the loading area. Was this accident his fault?Truck driver John Doe was making a delivery to Fiesta Fresh restaurant when a pink Mustang slammed into him in the loading area. Was this accident his fault?

Truck driver John Doe was making his way to a delivery at a local Mexican restaurant to drop off a few boxes of chili con carne. Upon finding the trucks only entrance he slowed to a safe crawl and entered the small dock area behind the restaurant.

He began a wide swing to the right at about 5 mph with his right turn signal on trying to park by the loading area.

Suddenly and without warning, a sleep-dazed waitress late for her shift zoomed wildly into the docking area in a pink Mustang, trying to take a shortcut to the employee parking area.

When she saw Doe turning across the front of her vehicle, she honked her horned, slammed on her brakes and began to slide. About then, Doe saw the pink flash and slammed on brakes, too, but it was too late, and the pink Mustang slid into Doe’s saddle tank.

Doe was issued a preventable-accident warning by his safety director, but contested it with the National Safety Council’s Accident Review Committee, who immediately ruled in favor of Doe. NSC said he proceeded with caution and was stopped when the Mustang hit him.

This was an adaptation of Overdrive sister site CCJ‘s “Preventable or not?” series, which appears regularly on CCJdigital.com.