Truck driver John Doe was making a routine delivery to a pizza restaurant when all of a sudden he heard his truck hit something. Upon further inspection, he noticed his truck had ripped down some low-hanging telephone cables. Was this accident preventable?
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Trucker John Doe was pulling a pizza-laden refrigerated trailer toward Nashville. Five miles ahead was Doe’s next delivery point – Mama Mia’s Perfect Pizza Joint.
Having routinely made deliveries to Mama Mia’s for six months with the same trailer and load weight, Doe turned into the parking lot and, TWANG!
Stopping to determine the cause of the strange noise, he was met with the disheartening sight of a broken telephone line laying on the ground.
Mama Mia told Doe that the phone company had been tinkering with the lines the previous day. Clearly the hill-fated line had been lowered, albeit not too noticeably.
Since Doe contested the preventable accident warning letter he received from his safety director, the National Safety Council’s accident review committee was asked to settle the controversy. NSC ruled in Doe’s favor, noting that he had no visual warning of danger.
