Trucker John Doe pulls his rig up to a store front for what was supposed to be a quick in-and-out delivery of a couple pallets of Diet Dr. Dew.
Doe makes his drop, hops back into to the cab and stuffs a fist full of Gummy Worms in his mouth before pushing the air brakes and dropping his 12-speed automated manual transmission into reverse.
Doe checks his mirrors, hits the four way flashers and gives a tug on the air horn before slowly backing away from a pickup parked in front of his rig when .... WHAM! Doe smashed the underride of his trailer into the frunk of illegally parked Tesla Model S driven by Ingrid Bumsteen, who swooped in behind Doe while he was hunting for a blue Gummy Worm – because those are his favorite.
Was this accident preventable?
The fleet safety manager cited Doe for an at-fault accident but Doe contested claiming that since Ms. Bumsteen's car was parked illegally he shouldn't be held liable because he exercised a reasonable and appropriate amount of caution, and asked the National Safety Council for a ruling.
The National Safety Council agreed with Doe's safety manager that, even though the car wasn't parked in an actual parking spot, the accident was preventable.
