In this Preventable or Not accident scenario, an aggressive sports car driver attempts to overtake a truck driver as a slow-moving bus enters their lane. However, this risky maneuver only leads to a collision between the truck and the sports car. Was this accident preventable?
CCJ's Preventable or Not series is sponsored by CarriersEdge, creator of interactive online training for small and midsize fleets, including comprehensive safety, compliance and best practices content for truck drivers.
A few minutes before the accident, truck driver John Doe was towing his trailer down a four-lane road, momentarily riding in the inside lane.A block ahead, a city bus began to pull into traffic from the right lane. Doe, traveling at the posted speed limit of 35 mph, did not slow down. At that moment, an impatient passenger car driver decided to try a Grand Prix-style maneuver, attempting to race her yellow Porsche through the rapidly diminishing gap between the Bus and Doe’s Class 8 tractor.Blammo!Since Doe contested the preventable accident waning letter he received from his safety director, the National Safety Council’s accident review committee was asked to decide the issue. To Doe’s dismay, NSC upheld the preventable ruling, noting that Doe had failed to slow down and check his side mirror for idiots in sports cars, when the bus began to amble back into the adjacent lane.
