Serious accident involving a helper

[air_dr]

Forgettaboutit!!!

To be perfectly clear:

Over9five endorses the company policy of yard employees wearing safety vests 100% of their time in the yard.
Over9five would like to see a company policy of supplying ALL Package car drivers with safety vests to be worn while delivering at night AND any other time at their discretion.

Would the company allow us to wear safety vests if we wanted to out on the street while doing our deliveries and pick-ups? I think its a great idea, but I am wondering if our supposedly very safety conscious company would actually be more concerned about appearance and image.

(Please forgive my tone above, but I have gotten so annoyed at times with one sup especially. As an air driver, I typically have to go out in the yard to retrieve my truck. This particular sup is certainly OK if I put on a vest, and he is also OK if I or another driver go out there in my dark brown uniform...but if he sees me going out there to retrieve my truck in light colored street clothes, not having yet changed, I get a lecture. He says rules are rules, and I respect that, but, goodness, it just makes no sense, like other things I sometimes see at UPS.)

 

[iowa boy]

The use of safety vest in the yard is related to the fact that each person in the yard is doing something different and thus might not being totally aware of everything that is happening in the yard at any given time. The Vest makes the person wearing it stick out not blend in with the surrounding thus making them more visible to other people in the yard that might not be aware that someone else is in that location.

For us package car drivers we have more control over the situation at each stop we deliver at night (house calls ). We park on the side of the road and 90 percent of the time don't have to cross the road. If we do it's behind the car and again we wait till the traffic has cleared then cross. We have control because we can see what is happening around us and make adjustments. In the yard a person might be doing something else and not be able to monitor what is going on around them.

This is what I was trying to reinterate in my first post in this thread and Over said it very eloquently for me, we all have control over our situation and know what to look out for. But I'm not at all comfy trusting someone I don't know from a hole in the wall to see me at nite when he or she could be texting, or talking on the phone, or looking for something in the car, or yelling at the kids in the back at the wrong time and not see me standing on the curb waiting for them to drive by.

 

[soberups]

Would the company allow us to wear safety vests if we wanted to out on the street while doing our deliveries and pick-ups? I think its a great idea, but I am wondering if our supposedly very safety conscious company would actually be more concerned about appearance and image.

There are drivers in my building who wear reflective vests while making deliveries.

It isnt something I have chosen to do on my mostly rural route..yet..., but if I ever did feel that a vest was necessary for my own safety, I would go ahead and wear one whether the company "allowed" me to or not. What they dont know want hurt them.

 

[dilligaf]

BOTH excellent ideas. In Feeders, everyone gets a safety vest. When I bid back to Package last year, I would wear mine while delivering at night. It is damn near impossible to see a driver all in brown at night, REGARDLESS of the little reflective stripes, AND if you're not wearing a coat you don't even have that.
Be responsible for your own safety. I'm sure the company will give you a safety vest if you ask. Even if they don't, they may cost you all of five bucks.

I think it is insane for UPS to require safety vests in the yard, but not for delivery drivers at night. It's your life on the line out there.

It seems nuts doesn't it, especially since management wears the safety vests in broad daylight when walking across the lot from one office to another.

 

[dilligaf]

Don't trust the emergency brake.

Pardon my abruptness, don't be an idiot and cut corners. Shut the truck off, put it in gear and set the parking brake.

 

[dilligaf]

Our brown uniform totally blends in with the background and as much as I trust myself, I do not trust others. You cannot control the dark invironment, only limited to controlling yourself and sometime, at the wrong moment, that wont be enough.

I ordered a replacement coat and when I got it, it was totally different.
Has anyone seen the new pull over coats that don't have a full length zipper. They don't have the reflective yellow strip down the arms nor across the upper back. They have a very skinny strip of reflective gray. Hardly visible. These coats are the new ones giving to jumpers and jumpers are not as awear of the job risks and not as near in habit enough to watch their surrounding as we are.

Ups trying to save $ on the reflective yellow strip and to top it off, hand em to our jumpers is just RETARDED! Yea, starting to use this word ALOT lately.

I don't like it being a pull over and still using my old coat which has full yellow and gray strips on arms and upper back. WHY would they remove that from the design is beyond me except to save $ without taken into concideration, OUR SAFETY.

Not only is it safer for us to have reflective yellow strips on our coat but it's one more step in having our customers trust in us knocking on the door and answering us at 7:45 at night!

I have a pull over jacket which I really like but if there is any chance that I won't be wearing it most of the day I won't wear it at all.

 

[UPSGUY72]

Pardon my abruptness, don't be an idiot and cut corners. Shut the truck off, put it in gear and set the parking brake.

You forgot to turn the wheel towards the curbs when parking on a hill.

 

[dilligaf]

Pardon my abruptness, don't be an idiot and cut corners. Shut the truck off, put it in gear and set the parking brake.

I gotta add to this. I can't help it. This accident is a tragedy that NEVER should have happened if the events (as we suspect them) that took place are true and accurate. Odds are that we will never really know the whole story. If the driver really was at fault, truck idling and parking brake set, UPS will not willingly divulge those details. MPO is that if this is the case this driver does not deserve to keep his job. He put himself and the public in serious jeopardy and caused grievous injury to his helper.

 

[dilligaf]

You forgot to turn the wheel towards the curbs when parking on a hill.

This works in theory but generally not in the real world. From the looks of the scene this was a rural area and many rural roads do not have curbs.

 

[UPSGUY72]

This works in theory but generally not in the real world. From the looks of the scene this was a rural area and many rural roads do not have curbs.

Even with out a curb it going to roll a lot less distance 90 percent of the time and at a lot less speed.

 

[dilligaf]

Even with out a curb it going to roll a lot less distance 90 percent of the time and at a lot less speed.

​I think this should be a judgement call. The judgement being based on the surroundings at the time.

 

[Johney]

What I don't understand about this whole incident is, how in the heck did that package car travel down a hill,through an intersection,around a corner(someone said) with the helper sitting in the jump-seat and the driver in the back and one of them not be able to stop this car? I think there is way more to this story than we will ever know.

Whatever I wonder, I wish a full recovery to both mentally and physically.

 

[UPSGUY72]

​I think this should be a judgement call. The judgement being based on the surroundings at the time.

I agree

 

[anonymous6]

can someone in WA please let us know how the helper is? I can't find out anything online.

 

[soberups]

can someone in WA please let us know how the helper is? I can't find out anything online.

Neither can I. I'm in Oregon, but Federal Way WA is only a couple of hours north of me and in the same District so I am hoping our management team has more info to share at tomorrows PCM.

 

[wornoutupser]

My building still has many of the older P-10's and I drive them a lot.
Even here in "flat Florida", the handbrakes DO NOT HOLD. Period. One truck has been in service here for 15 years and the hand brake-even if all parts were replaced-DOES NOT HOLD!
I would take a hard look at the maintenance records in this case...

 

[Re-Raise]

Pardon my abruptness, don't be an idiot and cut corners. Shut the truck off, put it in gear and set the parking brake.

Are you somehow taking my advice to not trust the parking brake as an indication that I am an idiot who cuts corners?

I agree with your advice and I think we are saying the same thing. The parking brake will not hold the truck when they are out of gear.When I first started driving about 20 years ago I was in a parking lot with a little incline. I had the brake on in p1000 and the car in low gear with the gear shift toward the bulkhead door.

As I backed into the cab of the truck, I bumped the gear shift with my leg and the truck started to roll. I jumped into the driver seat and stopped the truck.

I learned that day to never trust the parking brake

 

[dilligaf]

Are you somehow taking my advice to not trust the parking brake as an indication that I am an idiot who cuts corners?

I agree with your advice and I think we are saying the same thing. The parking brake will not hold the truck when they are out of gear.When I first started driving about 20 years ago I was in a parking lot with a little incline. I had the brake on in p1000 and the car in low gear with the gear shift toward the bulkhead door.

As I backed into the cab of the truck, I bumped the gear shift with my leg and the truck started to roll. I jumped into the driver seat and stopped the truck.

I learned that day to never trust the parking brake

NO! Absolutely not. It was a general statement said in frustration of a situation that should never have happened. We have those here that act the same as the driver in this accident. I've witnessed such action first hand. R&G guys that are trying to save a sec so they can get home earlier.

 

[anonymous6]

Neither can I. I'm in Oregon, but Federal Way WA is only a couple of hours north of me and in the same District so I am hoping our management team has more info to share at tomorrows PCM.

i'd like to send a card to the family.

 

[over9five]

My building still has many of the older P-10's and I drive them a lot.
Even here in "flat Florida", the handbrakes DO NOT HOLD. Period. One truck has been in service here for 15 years and the hand brake-even if all parts were replaced-DOES NOT HOLD!
I would take a hard look at the maintenance records in this case...

Why in the world would you drive it? You have the right (and the responsibility) to refuse to drive unsafe equipment. Take a stand.