UPS Feeder Accident

[wkmac]

tie,
I can't speak for everyone else but I for one think I know you well enough that "if" the feeder driver is at fault you would not just hold some company line and defend him/her no matter what. Whatever the circumstances of the accident, sadly a woman is dead and that is the overriding concern here. What caused this to happen will have to be worked out by the police and other parties investigating the accident. I only pointed out the lighting after looking at the pictures and they appear to be in daylight. Long nose tractors do have dead zones which are equal in both daylight and night but other factors that have been pointed out by others I can't explain. I guess we'll have to let the police do their jobs and go from there.

I can't see any one of us being called as expert witnesses in this coming case so what we come up with here is obviously all speculation but interesting points nonetheless.

 

[trickpony1]

I was called into the office one day and asked if I knew anything about the accident I caused earlier that afternoon.
A supervisor that I have a degree of respect for said that someone called in and said my actions caused an accident just north of the hub entry/exit.
I told my supervisor that I don't ever go that direction, would have no reason to be in that location and intensely dislike turning left onto the main street in my car and especially my feeder truck. I told my boss it is not uncommon for me to turn right out of the hub and drive 2-3 miles out of my way to avoid a dangerous left turn onto the four lane main street.
The conversation ended there.
Moral of the story? If I were lying in my car and knew I was dying what do you think I would say to the first rescue person on the scene?
Without any witnesses it would be difficult to prove the company vehicle wasn't involved.

 

[tieguy]

tie,
I can't see any one of us being called as expert witnesses in this coming case so what we come up with here is obviously all speculation but interesting points nonetheless.

I agree. Each of us based on our background or personal experience will respond to the details differently. I appreciate the vote of confidence but I really was not too disturbed by trick ponys response which is why i joked back. ERI results consistently show our people do not trust management and especially upper management. There is a chance ( slim of course )we actually may have done something to earn that lack of trust. One of the biggest selling battles we face is the avoidable / fault issue. There are cases where a police officer says our driver was not at fault but we say he was not at fault but did not do everything he should have to prevent the accident from happening. In the work group an issue like this can sometimes cause a lack of trust to no fault of management. We can have rock solid reasons why we feel the driver is at fault. But the driver talks to his coworkers and sugercoats or denys responsibility. At that point we can't really rebut everything he says for confidentiality reasons. You then depend on the steward / BA / Safety committe to set the story straight. The steward can't obviously support the discharge of a driver but its important he at least has a good understanding of the issues involved. I've seen cases where we actively involved the steward in the accident investigation which I think is a great idea especially when dealing with fatalities.

 

[tieguy]

Moral of the story? If I were lying in my car and knew I was dying what do you think I would say to the first rescue person on the scene?
Without any witnesses it would be difficult to prove the company vehicle wasn't involved.

I don't follow the point. Are you saying the woman purposely lied about a UPS tractor trailer being involved? I think your point about not jumping to conclusions is good. But this point is a stretch and I'm not really comfortable accusing a woman who died in an accident of something so unethical. Thats a point you make when you have thoroughly investigated this case and found no evidence our driver was involved. The tractor will be checked for any scraped paint. The womans car should have scraped paint on the rear of it where contact was made. The drivers tach may provide some clues not only to any sudden stops but also to his location on his planned travel path. Trick buddy you accused me of jumping to conclusions then jumped the grand canyon on this one.

 

[dannyboy]

Trick

I had something like that happen back in the 80's.

Broke my foot around 10:30 or so in the morning, but was told to keep working since I could not show or prove it was broken to the sup.

Later on that day, I was pulling out of a car lot to the edge of a divided four lane road. The woman in the right lane moved over to let me in, without realizing that there was another car next to her. This other woman went into the median, was airborne and came back down again without flipping. To this day I don't know how she didn't flip or hit the light poles in the middle.

The woman that ran her off the road pulled over and I eased in behind her to see if they were both OK. The woman in the first car was crying, and the one that took the ride was pissed at the woman that moved over on her. After cussing, she got in her car and took off like a bat out of heck. The other woman settled down and left as did I.

Two weeks later, UPS came to me asking about a lawsuit claiming that I had run her off the road, and then claimed I left the scene.

Had to take several days off butt she ended up losing the case as her lawyer filed the suit in the wrong county. Jerk!

So it can happen to any of us. As for proof, Brown UPS paint on her car, or her car paint on the truck or tires should take care of proof. As for his not knowing that he hit her, I stand by the case that it would be impossible to not know.

d

 

[Unregistered]

http://a.abclocal.go.com/images/wabc/cms_exf_2005/news/hitrun4_111005.jpg
It appears that the area around the drivers side brake light has damage but the rear bumper does not. The rear window is blown out but that could be from impact with the tree or the rescue of the victim. Now if the tractor hit the rear wouldn't there be damage to the bumper and trunk lid areas? If the tractor was switching from the center lane to the right lane and hit were it looks like there is damage (Drivers Side rear) wouldn't that cause the Escort to immediately spin to the left (counter clockwise) thus impacting the entire driver side with the tractor possibly putting the Escort directly infront of the tractor? Looking at the pictures it looks as if this did not happen though. If you look at the drivers side rear tire that is not bent nor looks damaged and the rear bumper looks fine. It also looks as if the driver side had no or very minimal impact with the feeder. By hitting the tree it looks as if the car had to be going at a fair rate of speed.
I'd venture to say that the news team wanted to sensationalize the story by claiming a big company such as UPS killing a mother of 4. The feeder could have struck the vehicle but I'd say as others have that the last trailer probably clipped the side of the car or the front corner. The damege would have been a lot worse if it was from the rear. My heart goes out to the family involved as well as the UPS driver involved. I really doubt a UPS driver would knowingly have left the scene. UPS trucks stand out so you know people would see it. Look at all the heroic action made by UPS drivers over the years.

 

[ok2bclever]

You got all that from that one partially obscured photo?

Time will tell.

 

[Unregistered]

You got all that from that one partially obscured photo?

Time will tell.

The rear wasn't obscured. Did you see the rear tires? Still inflated and still straight. You can see the trunklid and tail lights with the bumper plain as day. The new stated that the vehicle was hit in the rear, not side, front or anywhere else. Maybe it's the Xray specs I got from a commic book some years ago that helped?

Have a good weekend.

 

[dannyboy]

If the news say it was hit in the rear, but there is no damage to the rear, but yet the whole right side is bowed in to the center console, could it be that they were just wrong?

It happens more times than not.

I remember a truck driver got pulled over a while back because there were sparks coming from the front end. Seems that there was a car sideways that he was pushing along, and had been for several miles. Claimed he never felt it or knew it was there. It had been abandoned along side the road so no one was inside.

Cant figure out how this could happen and not know something was not right with the way the truck feels or handles.

d

 

[ok2bclever]

What I see are a couple of low rez pics taken in the dark which do not allow real clear evidence of much.

It does show what appears as damage on the very left hand rear corner of the car.

That corresponds with the original story of the feeder changing from center to right lane, striking the rear of the car.

It wouldn't take much of a nudge by a multi ton vehicle like one of our feeders hauling doubles to put an economy car out of control.

Speculating on the spin physics of the contact is fairly useless as from where the damage is it really depends on how much forward motion compared to sideward motion was going on relative to the two vehicles at the time of contact.

It could spin the small car around more into the feeder or just as easily have punched it in a direct diagonal away from feeder and off the road which is what appears most likely to have happened.

I agree with danny that I can't see that happening to a concious driver without his knowing what had just occurred.

Now, one nodding off I easily could.

Regardless, a horrible incident for both parties involved and bad PR for UPS whatever the end results.

 

[trickpony1]

Several summers ago one of our feeder drivers in a cab-over tractor sideswiped a family of four in broad daylight about a mile from the center. He didn't stop, said he thought he blew a tire. The family followed the driver to the center.
The pictures clearly show the circular pattern the front right lugnuts gouged out of the drivers door. The police weren't called, the driver didn't get a ticket or get fired.
Soon afterwards he went into management as a bean counter in IE.

 

[over9five]

Did the family make out well? $$$

 

[trickpony1]

Don't know.....never heard any more about it.

 

[susiedriver]

Different description of accident

CLIFTONA 40-year old Lyndhurst mother of three was killed late last Wednesday night when her 1999 Ford Escort was sideswiped on Route 3 east by a tractor-trailer, which continued eastbound and did not stop after the accident.
Tina DeMuro, 40, was traveling home from her West Caldwell job at approximately 11:30 p.m. when her vehicle was cut off by a tractor-trailer moving from the middle to right lane hit the front end of her car sending it spinning off the road into a utility pole in between the Broad Street and Bloomfield Avenue exits on Route 3 east, according to Clifton Public Information Officer Capt. Robert Rowand. Authorities pronounced her dead at the scene.
The tractor-trailer failed to stop after hitting DeMuros vehicle and continued eastbound along Route 3. Police were unable to get a good description of the tractor-trailer, but said they have a few leads in the investigation, according to Rowand.
There are a lot of factors that go into accidents and there is always an outside chance that he did not know he hit the car, said Rowand. Route 3 is subject to a lot of accidents because it is a well traveled road.
DeMuros vehicle did not have side impact airbags and Rowand was unsure if she was wearing a seatbelt.
The Clifton Police Department said it was doing everything it could to help find the driver of the tractor-trailer. Anyone with information about the accident should call Patrolman Brian Fopma of the Clifton Police Department at 973-470-5906.
DeMuro, who lived on Lewendowski Avenue in Lyndhurst, leaves three children and her husband James.

 

[traveler]

Wow! This is completely opposite of the first (link) story posted. I guess we will have to wait to see how the information developes.

 

[tieguy]

Several summers ago one of our feeder drivers in a cab-over tractor sideswiped a family of four in broad daylight about a mile from the center. He didn't stop, said he thought he blew a tire. The family followed the driver to the center.
The pictures clearly show the circular pattern the front right lugnuts gouged out of the drivers door. The police weren't called, the driver didn't get a ticket or get fired.
Soon afterwards he went into management as a bean counter in IE.

Trick did you also support this guy up until you found out they were promoting him?

 

[trickpony1]

No.
I didn't simply because he had torn up a bunch of other equipment and dropped several trailers (one in a major intersection and one along a major interstate that he didn't even know he had lost).
This guy was being groomed for management and everyone knew it. He got away with accidents (including the felony hit and run mentioned earlier) and damage that would have gotten anyone else fired.
The company knew he was a liability issue and was more than happy to "promote" him into IE where he couldn't do too much third party damage counting beans.
He also had the pompous, arrogant attitude so common to management.

 

[tieguy]

can't be any worse than yours. If management was black you would be the president of the KKK.

 

[trickpony1]

Are we being presumptuous today?

 

[tieguy]

Not really its clear you hate and despise all management. Its ok though I understand.