The ramifications are sobering

Don't worry, I have many other Tourette's induced names left on the back burner for when needed.
Is this where you eat lunch?
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OLDMAN3

Guest
No...okay True Story alert...this happened at least 10 years ago

A rookie driver pulls up to a stop in front of a house on a long residential street. As he's parking...he glances to the house across the street and sees a little 3 year old boy playing in a sandbox in the front yard.

The driver grabs his dolly (hand cart lol) gets out of the PC...opens the RD to deliver an irreg. He returns to the back of the truck....tosses cart in..closes it..and gets back in the truck to leave.
As he's buckling his seat belt...he looks across the street again...and the sandbox is empty. He goes to start the truck and stops. Thinking the.boy might have wandered off...the driver hops out ..and goes across the street to the kid's house to ring the bell.

As he's walking up the driveway...he glances back at his truck...and to his horror sees the.little boy standing in front of the.UPS truck...drawing in the dust on the front bumper. The boy was so small...the driver couldn't see him from the driver's seat.

Ok...
This actually happened to me 20 years ago.
Stopped on a resi street behind a car, a lady was coming out of a house on the right with several kids. She is saying goodbye and loading her infant into the car when I am delivering to the house she came out of. Then I walk to, and deliver to a house across the street and slightly behind. I made the mistake of delivering the house she was coming out of first because her sister was still in the doorway making for an easy D.R. When I got back to the truck she was closing her car door. I was coming from the house slightly behind my truck and across the street. I entered on the driver's side. Thinking that all the kids were loaded in the car, I started my engine and just as I start to let go of the clutch, I noticed a 4 year old girl on the blvd just in front of me. I brake to stop rolling. She runs into the street in front of my truck and pulls her 1 1/2 year old brother from right in front of my right tire to the curb. I had no idea he was there.

It took me the rest of the work day to calm down. I always enter the truck on the passenger side now, and check in front of the truck before starting up.
 

oldupsman

Well-Known Member
Ok...
This actually happened to me 20 years ago.
Stopped on a resi street behind a car, a lady was coming out of a house on the right with several kids. She is saying goodbye and loading her infant into the car when I am delivering to the house she came out of. Then I walk to, and deliver to a house across the street and slightly behind. I made the mistake of delivering the house she was coming out of first because her sister was still in the doorway making for an easy D.R. When I got back to the truck she was closing her car door. I was coming from the house slightly behind my truck and across the street. I entered on the driver's side. Thinking that all the kids were loaded in the car, I started my engine and just as I start to let go of the clutch, I noticed a 4 year old girl on the blvd just in front of me. I brake to stop rolling. She runs into the street in front of my truck and pulls her 1 1/2 year old brother from right in front of my right tire to the curb. I had no idea he was there.

It took me the rest of the work day to calm down. I always enter the truck on the passenger side now, and check in front of the truck before starting up.

Hitting a child was always my worst nightmare. Whenever I pulled up to a home and their were children outside, I'd count the number
and when I returned to the car I would still walk around it once and look underneath before I got back in. Standards be damned.
 

idrivethetruck

Slow & steady wins the race.
A few months ago, I made a delivery in a cluster of town homes and was aware of a small child (about 4 years old) playing with a skateboard. When I started up my truck, I waited until the rear monitor came on and watched as he walked up, sat the skateboard down, grabbed the rear bumper, and stood up on the skateboard.
After shutting the truck off, I walked to the rear of the truck and there he stood, waiting for me to take off. When I asked him what he was doing, he said "I do this all the time on my skateboard game".:speechless:

After explaining to him why it was dangerous for him to do this, I asked where he lived and went and told his mother, who actually seemed annoyed that I was interrupting what she was doing!

Anyway, I spent quite some time afterwards thinking about what might have happened if I hadn't been quite so vigilant as I left that area.
 

bleedinbrown58

That’s Craptacular
A few months ago, I made a delivery in a cluster of town homes and was aware of a small child (about 4 years old) playing with a skateboard. When I started up my truck, I waited until the rear monitor came on and watched as he walked up, sat the skateboard down, grabbed the rear bumper, and stood up on the skateboard.
After shutting the truck off, I walked to the rear of the truck and there he stood, waiting for me to take off. When I asked him what he was doing, he said "I do this all the time on my skateboard game".:speechless:

After explaining to him why it was dangerous for him to do this, I asked where he lived and went and told his mother, who actually seemed annoyed that I was interrupting what she was doing!

Anyway, I spent quite some time afterwards thinking about what might have happened if I hadn't been quite so vigilant as I left that area.
Of course she got annoyed at the UPS driver pointing out her bad parenting skills. Who the hell lets a 4 year old play outside in the street by himself??
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Whenever I catch kids on skates or skateboards trying to hang on the rear bumper for a ride, I tell them the fictitious story of the kid on skates who was being towed behind a UPS truck that drove over an open manhole cover at 30 MPH, and how the kid fell part way down the hole before being cut in half by the edge of the manhole, with his fingers stuck in the bumper and the upper half of his body being dragged behind the truck as his intestines and guts left a half-mile long bloody smear in the middle of the road. I also tell them that the lower half of the kids body went down the manhole into the sewer and was never recovered and that the crabs and worms probably ate it. Its a highly effective way to make a lasting impression on a 9 year old, and I don't wind up getting any repeat offenders.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
Years ago the back bumper of the UPS truck (and every delivery truck for that matter) was considered a taxi by the reservation kids and some adults. I guess the drivers got tired of fighting it and just ignored them. I don't recall anyone ever getting hurt or sued. The res. is a different world.
 

thessalonian13

Well-Known Member
Many many many years ago, before rear view cameras, I had a little hood rat keep jumping on my rear bumper as I was trying to leave a business. I warned the kid three times to stop jumping on the bumper and he would falsely apologize and get off. Then when I started the truck the 4th time and start to roll SLOWLY, I watched him run up and jump up on the bumper. I coasted for a little and let him think he won for a second........until I hit the brakes and heard him smack the rear door. When i walked around the truck I asked him, "so you gonna keep getting on the truck?" All I got in return was a bunch of mother friend-er's and other choice words as he walked away rubbing his head.

But I would never do that now. Not with how quick people are to be recording everything or to make phone calls with complaints. And every hood rat around is toting a gun. No thanks.
i had the same problem delivering in the hood 20 years ago. I did the same thing. Kid learned his lesson and didn't try it again.
 

728ups

All Trash No Trailer
Sober, I prefer to be more direct----"get off the damn truck" works really well for me.
i had that happen not long ago.I was in a ncie suburb making deliveries when i noticed 3 kids sitting on the bumper when i returned to the package car. I asked them nicely to move along,and they did....but when i started the truck i could in the rear view camera they were back on the bumper. i turned the truck off and ran to the back telling them to GET OFF MY BUMPER!!!!

and of course 2 parents came out and yelled at ME for yelling at the kids for being on the truck. i just dont understand people
 
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