RT @MnDPS_OTS: You can't make this stuff up. Here's how NOT to use your seat belt. pic.twitter.com/DtDKssWPwu #unsecuredload
— Overdrive Magazine (@OverdriveUpdate) October 16, 2015
The tweet above, shared from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, caught my eye this morning, given especially prescient import after Wendy Parker’s post from last week Friday. That post told the story of a tanker driver who lost his life after a mattress (un)secured to the top of a van broke loose on the New Jersey turnpike and brought traffic to a quick near-halt. The driver went right into open space to miss flattening a stopping four-wheeler ahead, rolling the tanker and sacrificing himself in the process. You can read Parker’s story here:
A memorial service for the driver was held yesterday, according to reports. He was identified as Dalip Kumar by the JSK Transport fleet he drove for and reportedly immigrated to the U.S. in 2005 and had been hauling since.
Several of your thoughts on the incident stood out. “He is a trucking professional,” Sam Olessi said of Kumar. “The video … shows traffic had almost come to a stop in his lane. The cars went left, he went right, to avoid running over someone…. Right lane was clear — always look in your mirror every five seconds. Trucking 101. God bless him and his family.”
Kevin J. Reidy concurred, noting that “he swerved to miss a Honda that came to a screeching halt in his lane, not a mattress directly. The mattress had just fallen off the roof of the van that was carrying it and it fell in front of the Honda driver. The tanker would have flattened the car and everyone in it if he hadn’t done what he did. As it was, he still clipped the Honda. My condolences to all who knew and loved that driver.”
