In the accident scenario presented in the above video installment in Overdrive sister publication CCJ's "Preventable or not?" series, trucker John Doe is in downtown Indianapolis one sunny morning, sitting at a red light. When Doe gets the green to go, he moves forward with no hesitation and, partway through the intersection, hears a sudden BANG! toward the rear of his combination rig.
A brown station wagon had been proceeding toward the intersection at about 35 mph when it suddenly dawned on the driver that the traffic signal ahead was bright red. A panic stop proved insufficient to save the day -- the auto driver slid into the intersection and struck Doe's rig.
Doe's carrier employer, probably feeling they had an open and shut case for a nonpreventable crash, asked the National Safety Council's accident review committee to make an official judgement. Watch the video above to find out where the committee landed.
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.
[Related: FMCSA offering 'kinder, gentler' approach to safety scoring? Not if automated inspections go live]
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 1: The fender-bender occurred about 9 a.m., at an intersection in downtown Indianapolis. At the time, the sky was bright blue and the surface of two-lane West 86th Street -- occupied by John Doe’s tractor -- was bone dry.
As the traffic light turned green, Doe nosed his tractor-trailer into the intersection without hesitation. Immediately, a tremendous BANG indicated something had just ruined his day.
A glance at the West Coast mirror showed that a somewhat compressed car had molded itself around his trailer’s tandem.
A brown station wagon had been proceeding toward the intersection at an estimated speed of 35 mph when it suddenly dawned on the driver that the traffic signal ahead was bright red. A panic stop proved insufficient to save the day as the car slid into the intersection and struck Doe’s tractor.
Doe’s company forwarded the accident details to the National Safety Council’s Accident Review Committee for a final decision. NSC’s judgement was “non-preventable.” Even if Doe had dragged his heels in moving into the intersection, his rig would have suffered from the kamikaze attack of the station wagon driver.
