In the accident scenario presented in the above video installment in Overdrive sister publication CCJ's "Preventable or not?" series, trucker John Doe's delivery of a load of belly boards and swimwear to the Supreme Surfer Supermarket in Cocoa Beach, Florida, meets an obstacle.
Namely, the very motorized bay door that had just opened for his tractor-trailer to begin backing to the inner dock. With the trailer partway in, the rolling door suddenly began to roll the wrong way -- down, and fast, stopping only when it whacked the top of Doe's trailer. A store manager, admittedly agitated, instructed Doe to move forward -- the action damaged the door considerably.
Later, Doe's fleet warned him of a preventable accident now on his record, yet the operator appealed the preventable characterization to the National Safety Council's Accident Review Committee, who rendered a final judgment. See where the NSC came down in the video.
[Related: FMCSA proposes changes to Crash Preventability Determination Program]
Hear plenty in the way of advice around the importance of having clearly nonpreventable crashes reviewed by the federal Crash Preventability Determination Program in this early-2024 edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast:
Find more in the "Preventable or Not?" series via this link.
Find more information on the ins and outs of the DataQs system for challenging crashes and violations in Chapter 15 of the updated Overdrive/ATBS-coproduced "Partners in Business" book for new and established owner-operators, a comprehensive guide to running a small trucking business sponsored for 2024 by the Rush Truck Centers dealer network. Click here to download the most recent edition of Partners in Business free of charge.
Speaker: Sick of spinning his duals on snow and ice-covered roads in the Northeast, trucker John Doe happily accepted the task of delivering a load of colorful belly boards and swimwear to the Supreme Surfer Supermarket in Cocoa Beach, Fla.
Now, days later, he was almost to his destination, sitting proudly behind the wheel of a beautiful, powerful new conventional with bright red paint, highly-polished aluminum wheels. Life was good. Before long, he spotted the Supreme Surfer Supermarket dead ahead.
After waiting for another trucker to exit the dock by passing under a motor-driven rollup door, Doe began backing his trailer, cautiously eyeballing his mirrors when suddenly, the rollup door began to roll down … fast … and … WHUMP! … hit the top rear of his trailer!
An agitated store manager suddenly materialized and yelled to Doe to pull forward, but that maneuver ripped the dock door, earning Doe a preventable-accident warning letter which he contested.
Asked to render a final decision, the National Safety Council’s Accident Review Committee immediately ruled in Doe’s favor. There was no way that Doe could have anticipated or escaped the door’s dastardly descent, NSC said.
