Please be extra careful with your driving habits.
Hopping into the survey chariot and moving to your next task is so automatic, we all are prone to do things without thinking. That is exactly how I happened to back into a 14-inch tree trunk that I swear was not present when I pulled up five minutes earlier to chat with the client. That was a dozen years ago.
The current tragedy happened locally to a young farm family. Their two-year old daughter was backed over by a truck. I have known the mother since she was a teenager and she is about 40 now. This was their only child. The incident happened in the late afternoon and every effort was made to reduce her suffering, but, she died the next morning at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. I serve on the Board of Directors of the mother's employer.
In less than the blink of an eye, it happens. It hurts to hear this.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Typing class 9th grade!
PacificCorp requires a walk around before pulling out. All of their rigs have a big sticker noting the requirement.
As for backing into a tree, be there done that. Backed into a 24" Doug Fir with my wife's brand-new Pathfinder way back before we were married. And when I say new, I mean a couple of days old. Even better, she told me not to back into the tree. Several decades later I still hear about it.
This is why several companies, such as AT&T, require that when the driver parks, to put out cones around the vehicle. The driver is then forced to walk around the vehicle to pick up the cones.
Such a terrible loss.
Having only one child is easier but very risky when something like that happens. I can't even imagine the grief of that poor mother. The world is a much safer place today but bad things can still happen. Big families used to be a must because you never knew how many would survive to adulthood. Today, many only have one child because they find it so disruptive to their previous life. Having more will be harder but not as hard as going from none to one.
Terrilbe news
but a great safety share, lets keep alert and focussed 24/7!
@tommy-young Our local natural gas provider requires the same.
Always do a walk around, not only for dangers to truck or humans but also gear you didn't put in the vehicle, that has saved me from running over a tripod I left leaning against the back of the truck.
I always try to back into spaces, driveways, etc. even in my POV. Way safer to back in than out and is why you see a lot of utilities doing the same with company vehicles.
I also tend to make three right turns vs one left turn if reasonably possible.
Stay in the right lane unless actively passing.
Just some of the things I do.
There are a lot of learned habits you can do that maximizes driving safety vs just auto pilot A to B.
PacificCorp requires a walk around before pulling out. All of their rigs have a big sticker noting the requirement.
As for backing into a tree, be there done that. Backed into a 24" Doug Fir with my wife's brand-new Pathfinder way back before we were married. And when I say new, I mean a couple of days old. Even better, she told me not to back into the tree. Several decades later I still hear about it.
We do this here at SAM nowadays. They have a little safety cone that has a sticker with "360" on it reminding the driver to walk around the vehicle before moving. It has reduced the amount of damage to company vehicles as well as to their surroundings.
This is so sad. I feel bad for the person in the vehicle. I imagine this ways very heavy on their mind.
T. Nelson - SAM
Check your home county news from last week.
Yessir. Talked to the folks too. Very sad.
T. Nelson - SAM
I was on a topographic survey outside of my home state in February. We had a rare snow event that postponed travel for a couple of days and when I did travel to the project, it was through a lot of dirty, salty slush. Weather was nice at the project location. I was checking storm sewer inverts along a two lane state highway, driving from point to point in my truck on the last day and remaining hours on the project, just picking up missing details.
I pulled off onto the shoulder to take a shot and keep out of line of the constant traffic that seemed to be doing 5-10 mph over the speed limit. Pulled in a tight spot between a tree and a fire hydrant. Got my shot, jumped back in the truck, put it in drive and CRUNCH!!! I hit the fire hydrant. Displaced my bumper by about 4" and put a 10° tilt on the hydrant (Thankfully no leakage).
Normally, my clearance sensors would have alerted me to the proximity of the hydrant but they were crudded over from driving through a couple hundred miles of dirty slush. In future I need to remember to get to the carwash as soon as practical after a snow event.