Wal-Mart.....REALLY....???? WTF......

Let's face it, the trucking industry is just pretty screwed up. The entertainment industry is screwed up, the media is pretty screwed up along with the retail industry being screwed up. We all spend our lives waiting on loads, waiting in traffic and a %20 across the board improvement in efficiency would do us all a world of good.

We hate Wal-Mart because we have been led by the media to hate them. Has anyone reported anything about the driver of the bus Tracy Morgan was on? Do we even know who he was? Was there any reports of the drug tests on any of them? No. We have a wealthy celebrity who had an accident with a trucker and we fellow truckers are so easily drawn into the drama because we have been trained to take sides and give our opinion. I am sure there were plenty of autos around when this happened....where are they? Who is gonna speak up first? The one who shops at Wal-Mart but at the same time wants to see Wal-Mart taken to the cleaners?

I am no lover of Wal-Mart. I think Sam Walton created an empire and his children have picked up the ball and ran with it. But who knows what this driver did on his own personal time before he went on duty? None of us do and we never will because it was HIS PERSONAL TIME. Anyone willing to allow the companies you work for chip you so they can control you during your 10 hours in the sleeper? Not me. If the driver didn't get enough sleep it is because the driver himself chose not to. Wally has a sound safety policy, if drivers don't follow the policy what can the company do? How well do any of us follow our companies safety policy? Most of us truckers hold the safety department in contempt because they actually never drove a truck and have no idea what we go through in a day. Why would we expect the children of Sam Walton to be any different than the rest of the corporations we drive for? Most companies die of neglect and the ongoing quest to get comfortable at a job so as to ride it out and retire. The company heads get lazy. They don't attack the job like it matters. Mediocre drivers say the right things and get a set of keys. Anyone who actually really cares about the company is branded a trouble maker.

Our safety department doesn't know a king pin from a clothes pin and the head of it is a young man who has absolutely no practical knowledge of trucking at all, but he took up smoking so he could take a smoke break with the girls in the office. All he knows is to send you down for a drug screen AFTER the accident. Trucks fly out of the gate with lights not working, loads not weighed and many times on flat tires. But the safety department has pac man on their computer and after all that is where the real life happens after all!

The only time anyone takes safety seriously is after someone gets killed and even then it will take someone with notoriety to get our attention. If Tracy Morgan was a struggling comic at the Ice House, we wouldn't give his death another thought Tracy was human, just like the Wal-Mart driver who gets to live with this the rest of his life. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
 
Contributory negligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contributory negligence in common-law jurisdictions is generally a defense to a claim based on negligence, an action in Tort. This principle is relevant to the determination of liability and is applicable when plaintiffs/claimants have, through their own negligence, contributed to the harm they suffered. It can also be applied by the Court in a Tort matter irrespective of whether it was pleaded as a defence.

For example, a pedestrian crosses a road negligently and is hit by a driver who was driving negligently. Since the pedestrian has also contributed to the accident, they may be barred from complete and full recovery of damages from the driver (or their insurer) because the accident was less likely to occur if it weren't for their failure to keep a proper lookout. Another example of contributory negligence is where a plaintiff actively disregards warnings or fails to take reasonable steps for his or her safety, then assumes a certain level of risk in a given activity; such as diving in shallow water without checking the depth first.
 
If TM and all the others were buckled up they may have not been injured or killed.

If the truck driver didn't hit them it wouldn't have mattered if they were wearing their seatbelts or not.

In my opinion there is some culpability on the part of the wal-mart driver as well as Tracy Morgan and the other occupants. However, it is important to note that New Jersey does not require those in an RV to wear seat belts unless they are in the front seat(s).

then good luck wally world.....Tracy's lawyers have this case.......

We hate Wal-Mart because we have been led by the media to hate them.
then why do people still shop there, why do trucking companies still pick up at the d/c centers, why do people still work there..???
i don't see a down right hatred for wally world, for what i noted.


Has anyone reported anything about the driver of the bus Tracy Morgan was on? Do we even know who he was?

in actuality, who cares....he was sitting in traffic, when a moron rear-ended him.....even IF and i say IF he was to have tested positive for drugs, what difference does that make, when he was (again) sitting in traffic and got rear-ended by a moron driver...???

Was there any reports of the drug tests on any of them? No. We have a wealthy celebrity who had an accident with a trucker and we fellow truckers are so easily drawn into the drama because we have been trained to take sides and give our opinion. I am sure there were plenty of autos around when this happened....where are they? Who is gonna speak up first? The one who shops at Wal-Mart but at the same time wants to see Wal-Mart taken to the cleaners?

drug testing must have been done as per DOT regulations. now whether or not it was reported or published, there could have been a gag order on that, by ALL the lawyers. yeah, we as truckers freely give our opinions, but when we have a clear-cut case of a driver, who drove to his job, what, 7 to 10 hours away..(???) and jumps into his company truck, we already know he is tired. the other witnesses,...?? of course they were there, and i think many if not all that had a "visual" were questioned...

I am no lover of Wal-Mart. I think Sam Walton created an empire and his children have picked up the ball and ran with it. But who knows what this driver did on his own personal time before he went on duty? None of us do and we never will because it was HIS PERSONAL TIME.
true, personal time is just that..personal...

let me remind you that a few years ago, a wally-world driver (i think from Maine) was home all day long. he was working around his house, helping his wife, and a few other things...didn't get a wink of sleep..

wen to work, fell asleep at the wheel, plowed into a car of teenagers, and killed either all of them or some of them...

after that tragic day...PATT was formed...Parents Against Tired Truckers, which i believe joined forces with C.R.A.S.H.

now ANY trucker that falls asleep behind the wheel is a danger, and open to all sorts of lawsuits, that's a given...right...??

but when it IS a wally-world driver, someone who works for a company with supposedly strict rules, and crashes, that makes BIG news. peopel may not forget the deaths that a wally world driver caused......i know i don't....

About The Truck Safety Coalition - The Truck Safety Coalition


and here is a video, of the mother of a kid that was killed, in fact all 4 were killed by that wally world driver that fell asleep....and SHE IS the mother that created PATT

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/10/...onoring-son-by-trying-to-make-highways-safer/

and here is the search on that crash..

https://www.google.com/search?q=wal....16059j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8



Anyone willing to allow the companies you work for chip you so they can control you during your 10 hours in the sleeper? Not me. If the driver didn't get enough sleep it is because the driver himself chose not to.
correct, i would not someone to dictate to me what I DO on my time off...but show some "common sense" and get some sleep....BECAUSE as an alleged professional, he should have KNOWN the effects.....as well ALL SHOULD KNOW.....as that "professional" we are always being told we are.


Wally has a sound safety policy, if drivers don't follow the policy what can the company do?
in this situation, a distinct policy regarding home residence in proximity to the d/c center should be thought out and changed.
one should not have to travel say more than 1-2 hours to get to work...or how about this, show a log, driving your own vehicle to get to work,.....then IF a driver like that one, say drove 7 hours (i cannot remember his exact drive time to work), then if he has only 4 hours left, that's all he can drive his truck. maybe that's what needs to be done, not track our off duty hours, but our drive time to work, and deduct that from our truck time....with so many rules, regulations changing, being modified, etc, how long before any organization comes up with this idea..??


How well do any of us follow our companies safety policy? Most of us truckers hold the safety department in contempt because they actually never drove a truck and have no idea what we go through in a day. Why would we expect the children of Sam Walton to be any different than the rest of the corporations we drive for? Most companies die of neglect and the ongoing quest to get comfortable at a job so as to ride it out and retire. The company heads get lazy. They don't attack the job like it matters. Mediocre drivers say the right things and get a set of keys. Anyone who actually really cares about the company is branded a trouble maker.

hardly anyone, at least to the letter.....(follow company policies)...the safety dept, if staffed by former experienced drivers, rather than college edumacted fools would be a better dept. we all know try to tell safety about what dispatch tells us, and safety pretty much just says, do your job with in the laws. making safety a joke dept, better to have Gallagher smash some watermelons instead..

Our safety department doesn't know a king pin from a clothes pin and the head of it is a young man who has absolutely no practical knowledge of trucking at all, but he took up smoking so he could take a smoke break with the girls in the office. All he knows is to send you down for a drug screen AFTER the accident. Trucks fly out of the gate with lights not working, loads not weighed and many times on flat tires. But the safety department has pac man on their computer and after all that is where the real life happens after all!

again, un-edumacted fools in charge....chasing skirts instead of experience.

The only time anyone takes safety seriously is after someone gets killed and even then it will take someone with notoriety to get our attention. If Tracy Morgan was a struggling comic at the Ice House, we wouldn't give his death another thought Tracy was human, just like the Wal-Mart driver who gets to live with this the rest of his life. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
it may still have been written up as an "up and coming entertainer killed in his prime", and maybe a friend of so and so....
 
Let's face it, the trucking industry is just pretty screwed up..

That's a fact!.....

Our safety department doesn't know a king pin from a clothes pin

If Safety wasn't such a serious matter...that statement would be funny.....well ok...its still Funny!....

Most of us truckers hold the safety department in contempt because they actually never drove a truck and have no idea what we go through in a day.

I think the Drivers that hold Safety Departments in contempt are the ones that are most likely to be rule breakers.....Many drivers these days willingly bend and break the Regulations because of the need or greed to make more money....Just the same with the Operations vs Safety Departments....They are conflicting entities within the same Company.....It really doesn't matter at the end of the day, so to speak, if Safety is staffed by Ex drivers or not....it is the Company policy that matters and it's the profits that are going win out in the end.....Where I used to work, our Company was very progressive in the area of safety...we had many Drivers that Drove a few days each week but were also involved in the Safety Dept also...I can say that the Drivers as a whole had no more respect for the drivers that were taking a lead in Safety....and those that were not actively involved in the Safety Dept., they just continued to do the same as they always did...bend and break Rules and Regs because they wanted to make more money.....

There is really very little "new" information regarding safety that you can teach a driver....Most of them know what to do and what is safe and what is not.....what is legal..what is not....so it's not the Information as much as it is how you motivate a Driver to use and apply the Knowledge that he, or she, already possess...

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Safety...or the lack of Safety boils down to one simple fact......The Drivers are the ones that are either Safe....or not....The Company can have the best intentioned Safety Departments...safety committees...training classes...etc.... There are Government Rules and regulations that are in place to "insure" the safety of the motoring public........but it is the Driver who ultimately is the most responsible and important link in the Safety Chain.......they are the ones actually doing the dangerous part in the transporting of goods....They are the ones that must decide whether or not to drive a vehicle that is not roadworthy..or sleep when they need to..etc....regardless of what the Company or shippers will or wish is.....All the rules and Regulations do not make a difference unless the Drivers abide by them and use common sense...

.Anyone that drives on the Nations highways today sees exactly what is wrong....to many drivers driving all to fast....tailgating at very high speeds and in all sorts of inclement weather and road conditions... both Cars and large Trucks alike...often times the Trucks are the worst offenders.....To many distractions..........I know Truck Drivers like to think they are the most "professional" drivers on the roads, but if you look at the traffic on the roads objectively you'll see that is not the case...and neither will you find much "professionalism" in the way Cars are driven either....

The only time anyone takes safety seriously is after someone gets killed and even then it will take someone with notoriety to get our attention

Unfortunately true....and even more sad is the truth that the attention lasts only a few fleeting moments....
 
it may still have been written up as an "up and coming entertainer killed in his prime", and maybe a friend of so and so....

We are all human. We have our failings and that includes everyone. Sooner or later we may all be in an accident, practicing safety will lesson the chances but we can't control what the other driver is going to do. All we can do is stay away from them and give ourselves a chance to avoid it. And we should all think of that the next time we decide to go Bull Wagon on someone and climb up their @ZZ.
 
That's a fact!......

I am surrounded by drivers who just refuse to do anything by the book. When I was a steward for the UAW I don't know how many times I had to tell members that they didn't leave me a way to defend them. They would drive into the GM plant in Arlington going 40 mph on a lane that was marked 10 mph. How do you defend a driver that is getting paid by the hour and still will not drive the speed limit?

Go figure.
 
We are all human. We have our failings and that includes everyone. Sooner or later we may all be in an accident, practicing safety will lesson the chances but we can't control what the other driver is going to do. All we can do is stay away from them and give ourselves a chance to avoid it. And we should all think of that the next time we decide to go Bull Wagon on someone and climb up their @ZZ.

that is all we can do, in the end..avoid them....we have all seen tired drivers, weaving across the road. many of us, including me, get on the radio to try and talk to them, hoping they will talk back and "wake up a bit"...but many was a time when we are told to mind our own business, or they simply do not have a radio (or turned on), so we move along, don't we..??

going "bullwagon" on someone who caused a death (or deaths) and injuries and massive destruction, deserve it, as they were SUPPOSED to be professionals and should have known better to pull over for either a power nap, or call it a night. those that wish to "push the envelope" and get into whatever situation(s) they did, just down right deserve all the bullwagon they get.....and that wouldn't be any more different from a wally world driver, to a swift, to a western express...

I am surrounded by drivers who just refuse to do anything by the book. When I was a steward for the UAW I don't know how many times I had to tell members that they didn't leave me a way to defend them. They would drive into the GM plant in Arlington going 40 mph on a lane that was marked 10 mph. How do you defend a driver that is getting paid by the hour and still will not drive the speed limit?

Go figure.

well you did your best, you did your job. now in "some instances" if something goes wrong, you very will may be the one that gets to face the chopping block first.....all you can do is say, you had a sit down talk, wrote him'her up, made them read the write up, made them sign it, and let the powers that be take over from that point....

if they get/got fired..???

then do what may be expected, and that is to "try" to work out a return to work, under strict probation for x amount of time, maybe life time, and any more transgressions, will be cause for a permanent firing, with loss of all benefits, retirement, etc,etc.

i did a part-time, seasonal stint at the postal service. in orientation, we were told that if you have an accident, you are fired. whether you were at fault or not, you were fired.

we were told that long time postal employee's, if they get into an accident, not only are they fired, they lose all thier retirement as well. and we were told, a long time employee WAS fired for having an accident.....

i do not know if that policy still stands, but if so, it sounds pretty dammed good to me..
 
i do not know if that policy still stands, but if so, it sounds pretty dammed good to me..

I don't know how many times I have seen cars go around me on the left, barely clear my front bumper getting in front of me, taking the exit at 80 and running up to the light only to have to sit at it while I continue down the interstate at 60. Was all that necessary? How impatient did these people need to be and how impressed do they think I am that they got to the light only to have to sit there after risking the themselves, me, my truck and the load of Pumpkins I am hauling? I am hauling the Halloween candy they will soon be handing out!

I like the line from the old Randy Stonehill song "It's a great big stupid world" and it sums it up pretty well. We are living in a dangerous world and drivers are just getting more aggressive every year. Maybe it is not so much the times we live in but the era we are living in. We can still be kind an patient with others but that just isn't in fashion these days. We are just a selfish generation that has to have everything our way. We don't have to be like that, we choose to be like that. We could be the exception, we could be exceptional if we wanted to be.

I doubt the driver who killed Tracy Morgan intended to do it. As the law stands today and how strictly it is enforced with on board computers and log books if this driver was fatigued it was his choice to drive that way. Everything we do on the road effects every one of us. If I was too busy playing the slots at the local Casino, if I spent my 10 hours in the sleeper at some topless bar somewhere instead of sleeping and I go out and kill someone? That is just handing the public another reason to hate all truckers in general, and all truckers will have to shoulder the additional hatred the public has of us. Every thing I do effects all my trucking brothers and sisters. May I never make the job harder for any of you. I remember when we were heroes to most people....Not anymore. We are in the cross hairs today so we should remember that the next time we go down the road half asleep and yeah, we have all done it. Most of us older truckers were compelled to do it by the companies we drove for and we should be thankful those days are gone. And yet we have the 32 year old trucker who is still talking about "The Glory Days of Trucking". He wasn't there and it wasn't that glorious.

Sleep is good, get as much as we can when it is offered to us.
 
yeah just a quick word..tracy morgan was not killed, but another comedian in that bus.

yeah, every thing we do, reflects on all of us, and giving fodder to the haters.
 
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