The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Crack down on bad truck drivers now.

This article is about a trucker that wrecked and killed a cop that was on the shoulder. It’s right on the money in every regard. This guy should not have been on the road.

Crack down on bad truck drivers now on The Daily News Journal

Big trucks are the lifeblood of this nation. We must have them rolling if we want to have milk, bread, beer, new DVDs and all the other parts of life we enjoy.

But, we have got to do a better job of regulating, read that as getting off the road, those drivers who just don’t measure up, who don’t abide by the rules of the road and who don’t understand the huge, 80,000-pound responsibility they assume when they move behind the wheel.

It should read “…do a better job of enforcing…” other than that, it’s right on.

Like any other profession, the majority of truck drivers are good, competent people who take their jobs seriously in all its respects, especially in their particular capacity the safety of others.

But, just as the Jason Blairs and Jack Kelley of the newspaper world represent a tiny minority, their misdeeds in their professional capacity require a majority response by our industry, so the trucking industry and others drivers must respond to those in their midst who do not meet their standards.

I thought that’s what DAC and the CDL license rules were supposed to do? You’re not supposed to be able to go to another state and get a new license. I don’t think we need more rules, but enforcing the ones that are already on the books would sure help.

Sadly, too often when a truck driver fails to live up to professional benchmarks people die as happened last week in Nashville when a driver with a horrendous record smashed apparently full-throttle into a Nashville police car running emergency lights leaving a female police officer dead and a female motorist in serious condition.

The truck driver, according to reports, plowed into the police car that had been set up to protect the motorist’s disabled car. The truck’s impact slammed the cop cruiser into the two women and the disabled car.

The trucker, of course, was unhurt.

Witnesses say the trucker never touched his brakes. Several others said the emergency situation was readily apparent to them.

News reports later last week detailed the accused driver’s incredibly bad record, including five suspensions of his driver’s license in Missouri and a criminal record with 130 charges, ranging from reckless driving, speeding more than 25 mph over the speed limit and possession of marijuana.

How someone could be barreling along our highways behind the wheel of a big rig with that kind of record boggles the mind.

Having spent a good number of hours on the road the past two weekends, I know the Nashville incident is not the norm, but unfortunately represents the behavior of too many truck drivers.

With the number of big rigs on the road, just a couple of percent of bad trucks drivers can leave immense carnage in their wake.

This is sad, but very true. A small percentage are making the news every time they wreck and kill someone. Looks bad for the rest of us. I hate to bring up this ag’driver shortage’ up again and again. But if we can get this small percentage off the road instead of just hiring the cheapest available steering wheel holder, the rest of us complient, legal, professional drivers are better off. There might be a real driver shortage but the rest of us should ‘rise to the top’ and get paid like it. I don’t think any driver in the country would argue with that. It’s that fine line of too much regulation infringing on our rights or not enough and we let these bad drivers through the cracks.

Then there’s this version from the girlfriend that was riding with him -

Passenger says trucker forced into fatal crash - Saturday, 07/24/04

Barbi Maupin, the fiancee of truck driver James L. Fitzgerald Jr., 25, said the two had stopped for snacks and a bathroom break about an hour before the collision.

He had until Wednesday to deliver a load of paper to New Jersey, she said. They were in no hurry.

As they traveled east on I-40, approaching the Stewarts Ferry Pike overpass, she was reading a magazine.

”James was talking about a sports car on the right side” of the truck, Maupin said in a phone interview yesterday. The car, which she identified as a Honda Civic EX, suddenly cut in from the lane to the right of the truck, she said.

If he wasn’t in a hurry, why was he in the hammer lane? And if he was so close to the (probably a) truck in front of him that he couldn’t see the left shoulder, he was probably tailgating too.

Maybe it’s me but a small sports car isn’t going to make me veer off the road. Someone runs me off the road, I’m taking a bunch of their paint with me. There were no other reports of this phantom sports car. Which is why I’m not going to be run off the road, mess up my truck or someone else avoiding someone that’s not going to stop if something happens. You just can’t do that. I’ve never been in that situation, but there are too many stories and excuses of being run off the road or missing a deer or whatever and there’s no evidence to clear the driver. The drivers looks like he’s lying, even if he’s not.

And no matter what, he shouldn’t have been on the road at all. Period. End of story. This story goes on saying how much he’s sorry and can’t sleep. Sorry, don’t feel sorry for him. He killed someone what about them and their family?