Arnold Safety Blog

Whoops. I knew I forgot something. This happened Tuesday August 26, 2008 at 5pm in Grand Prairie, TX.
The truck was at a truck-stop which is adjacent to (and uphill from, apparently) the McDonald’s. Next thing you know, the truck, without the driver, is inside the McDonald’s. The driver says he did [...]

By now, you may have heard about the fatal bus crash, which happened last Friday, August 8 just north of Dallas, TX on US 75. A bus, carrying a tour of Vietnamese Catholics heading for Missouri, blew a tire around 12:45am, careened off the road, onto its side, ultimately killing 17 of the passengers. [...]

Here’s a fatal crash that escaped my attention until now. This happened on April 11, 2003 in Glen Rock, PA, York County. That’s just down the road from me. A 21 year old driver of a 26,000 GVWR dump truck (non-CDL) lost his brakes on a steep hill, crashed into several cars [...]

This happened Monday, June 23, 2008 in the Chinatown section of Manhattan.
A dump truck coming down the off-ramp from the Manhattan Bridge lost control, and slammed into the back of a parked bus, which was loading passengers at the time. The truck driver said the brakes failed. One person was killed, and 3 [...]

I haven’t posted anything in awhile. Why? Well, let’s just say, if you’re not backing up your computer files, you should be. One day you’re going to push the “ON” button on your trusty laptop, and it’s just going to sit there. I was 80% ready for that awful day, next [...]

On Tuesday, February 19, on I-10 in El Paso, TX, a westbound tractor-trailer lost its left front steer wheel, which then bounced into the eastbound lanes of I-10. The wheel struck a glancing blow to at Dodge pickup pulling a camper, smashing in the driver’s door. No one was injured.

This sort of thing [...]

The regulations state that you must do a pre-trip inspection satisfying yourself the vehicle is in proper working condition at the beginning of your shift, and then a post-trip inspection (which must be in writing) at the end of the shift.  Many drivers only do one thorough inspection at the beginning of their shift, and [...]

Commercial Motor Vehicles, particularly tractor-trailers, have hundreds of moving parts.  Like anything mechanical, they require constant maintenance to remain in safe operating condition.  Daily inspections conducted by the driver are large part of any maintenance program.
 
The safety regulations require that both a pre-trip and post-trip inspection be done on commercial motor vehicles each day they [...]

The simplest advice (which often the best) on maintenance is 1) keep the vehicles in proper working condition at all times, and 2) write everything down you do to the vehicle in the way of maintenance.