Feb 11, 2011

Accusations

On Monday, I had the privilege of being accused of hitting a fourwheeler. I know I didn't do it, beyond a shadow of a doubt!! But the lady was determined to lay blame.


I was backing into a customer's driveway (it is a deadend with no room to turn around) and with the excessive snowbanks encroaching on the parking spots, the cars were staggered out into the driveway. There is typically enough room for 2 trucks side by side, so with the limited space there was still plenty of room for a single truck. The driveway is at least 500 ft long, and once I was planted in the middle of it, no one was going to get around me. There are also 5 businesses in this particular building, with my customer being to the rear. I had waited for several cars to come out before backing in, but once I was in the driveway, I noticed a lady dart out of one of the doors and fly to her car. She proceeded to back out of her spot and pull up behind me. Sorry Chicky, the only way you are getting around me is to pull back into your spot and let me by.

She pulls back into her spot and I creep by in reverse. I noticed her get out of the car and stand by her rear fender. Can't say I blame her for that because if I had a truck within 12" on my car, I would be out watching too.

I can see my fender in my spot mirror. I can see my steps in the little handy dandy "lot lizard" mirror that hangs over the passenger door. I can see at least a foot of pavement between me and the cars. Yes, it was tight! I need to get my trailer over just a little more to the left and did not want to risk getting any closer to the cars, so I pulled forward to give myself a little more room on the right side. Back in reverse, she is still by her fender. I just had made it passed her car and into the fenced area when she comes flying around to my window screaming " You just hit me!!"


My internal reaction was, this lady is crazy! My verbal reaction.. " Really, you would stand between me and your car and let me hit you?"

No, she thinks I hit her car... I didn't. I would have hit HER first. She is irate and screaming at me, so I told her to calm down, as I set forth to inspect the damages. She is continuing to fly off the handle cussing and berating me in typical Jersey Girl fashion. I tried to calm her down by telling her that the situation would be resolved and our insurance would take care of it, IF I was proven guilty, but we would need proper documentation. So the police were called out and while we waited, I grabbed the camera to document damages and vehicle positioning. I also grabbed a tape measure to determine just exactly what part of my truck could have possibly been responsible for the damages. I never found anything that was at the correct height to have scratched the car. The steps were 4 inches too low. The corners of the APU were even further away from the appropriate height. There is nothing else that pokes out and there were no indications on my truck whatsoever that I had made contact with her car. The more I documented, the more upset she became.


The customer I was delivering to, viewed the footage on the camera mounted outside and could not determine that I had hit her. All the employees came out to look and agreed that there was no way I had done this.

After an hour and a half wait, the police finally showed up to take the report. The "victim" then starts screaming at them for taking too long to arrive. I remained calm throughout the whole ordeal, because I was certain of my innocence. I let her have her say and waited to be questioned. First thing I noticed from the officers, were the smirks emblazoned on their faces. They were also trying to calm the lady down, but mentioned to her that there was no way that I had done this. The positioning of the car was all wrong. The only way I could have hit her car in the center of the bumper, parked at that angle, would have been while pulling forward, and the damages would have been a lot worse had I done this in reverse. I would have destroyed the bumper and parts of the fender. She had told them I did it while backing up. She also made a few more mistakes.. She told them she was sitting in the car and heard me hit her. Then she revised her statement and told them she was standing by the car and saw me hit her... Finally, she said she felt me hit her while sitting in the car. Which is it, Lady?

The officers returned to the car while she continued to shoot a few "go to hell" looks in my direction. After filing there report, they returned to give her a copy and as she left, she almost backed into the police car...

Then the officer approached me and handed me a green slip of paper. His instructions were as follows...

" What I suggest you do is get back in your truck and throw this piece of paper away. I did not file an accident report. There was no way you were responsible. Your name and company are not listed on any documentation. The only reason I am handing you this paper is to keep her calm."

He told me that he filed a damage report for her, but the cause of the damage was unknown.. He said he would not in good conscience lay blame at my feet for something he could not visualize having ever happened.

See, the Smokey Bears are not all bad... Thanks again, Suffolk County!!


2 comments:

Jeff said...

Everyone LOVES to blame the truck driver!

Hi, Terry. I stumbled onto your blog a while back and I'm enjoying following your posts. I drove OTR during 2009, but only for about 6 months. I was unemployed and got my CDL to keep my kids fed. (Yes, I read your somewhat recent rant about rookie drivers and CDL mills). I attended a pretty good CDL school, then was trained by and drove for TMC. I think I was pretty well prepared. I took the responsibility very seriously, and I was pretty proud of the job I did as a rookie. I couldn't handle the lifestyle, though... missed the family too much. My experience has given me much more admiration for serious drivers, like yourself!

I had an incident in a small town in PA where an 80-something year old woman blew through a red light and drove her minivan under my flatbed. Fortunately, my equipment box spun her out from under and she only had minor physical injuries. Immediately, I figured everyone would try to nail the truck driver, but, thankfully I had several witnesses that vouched for the fact that I was not at fault. I was cleared.

It's really frightening how much damage a loaded semi can do!

Drive safe. Keep blogging.

John II said...

Whoa, talk about crazy! I hate it when motorists make up false crap about damages to their vehicles and blame it on others, especially truckers. but you stood your ground, had eyewitnesses, video evidence, science and her "attitude" to collaborate your innocence. Thumbs up, Terry!
Jeff, some of my co-workers and I also had some situations driving rigs. A driver was making a left turn, his turn signal flashing and as he made the turn, a female driver went over the double yellow line, caught his front bumper and spun her around. The officer who arrived at the scene ask for both licenses, registrations and insurances. He had his, she didn't. And she started crying, claiming whiplash. SHE WAS LET GO. Talk about stupid! Another driver and I were rear-ended by a guy going too fast in a van (Our truck was stopped at a traffic light). But after examing the wreck, he didn't want to make matters any worse; turns out he was on parole and didn't have a valid license on him so he hobbled away in his wrecked van.
We all have to be careful while moving down the road. One driver told me with our company logos tattooed on our trucks, we're "easy money"; somebody will risk their life and others to get that cash from insurance scams.