The Million Dollar Toothpick
Posted on March 1, 2007
Filed Under HORROR STORIES
As I have said time and time again, the primary reason you follow the safety regulations is to protect yourself from liability, as well as preventing accidents, and protecting your drivers and the motoring public. Avoiding DOT fines is a secondary bonus to being in compliance with the rules. Here is a story of a large trucking company who paid an expensive lesson by not taking safety seriously. We will leave them anonymous, if for no other reason, because I own numerous shares of their stock (bought post-accident!).
The tractor-trailer is driving down the highway in 2002, when the truck breaks down. The brake air hoses had developed a leak in them. Rather than call a wrecker to make a roadside repair, the driver uses a toothpick and some duck tape (1,001 uses!) to plug the leak. He also notifies his dispatcher via Qualcomm of the situation, and that he was making the toothpick repair. The dispatcher expressed no interest in the situation, other to remark, “Were you a boy scout?”. About 100 miles later, after passing numerous truckstops where the repair could have been made, the air line came apart. When a tractor trailer loses air pressure suddenly, it is designed to lock up the brakes, so you do not have an uncontrollable 80,000 missile going down the road. Unfortunately, in this case, the truck went from highway speeds to a dead stop in the left hand lane of the highway. A car traveling behind the truck did not recognize the situation soon enough, and plowed into the trailer, killing the car driver.
A jury found the trucking company negligent, and awarded $17,500,000 in damages. More importantly, someone was killed because of a careless decision by the truck driver. These situations happen every day in the world of trucking, and usually life goes on as normal. This is proof that sometimes the worst-case scenario does happen.
Comments
Leave a Reply
