Just My Trucking Luck
I promised to tell the tale of how I came to be stuck at home. Well, I had planned to rant over the President and Congress and....... How I could go nuts. I'll spare ya'll for now.
June 19,06 3:15am
I arrive at work and place my lunch box in the truck along with my coffee cup. I start the truck while still standing on the running board. This I do every morning to build up the air pressure in the air tanks. For weeks my truck had an air leak in the sleeper air spring and the trailer had an air leak in the air tank mounted on the trailer. Well, both of these were repaired the previous week.
Here's where everything gets a little fuzzy. I reach inside to release the trailer brakes. (The trailer and tractor have separate valves to activate the parking brakes. The one for the tractor is Yellow triangle button and on the right. The trailer is a round Red button and on the left.) The only thing I can think of is I reached in and pushed in on the round Tractor brakes. I turned around and walked the 6-8 feet back to my car to get the directions I needed for the new customer. When I turned around, I saw the truck start rolling. After the immediate shock, I took off after the truck and the trailer. By this time it was rolling at 5-8 mph and picking up speed. Since I hopped on the running boards at the back , I had to walk up the 2-3 feet from the end of the running board to the door.
I can say I made it to the door and had pulled myself partially inside when I reached the first parked trailer. This trailer was stuck out a little further than the others and the door was the first thing to hit. This caused the door to slam back against my side and it also caught my left leg between the door and door frame. I can honestly say this is the first moment I realized that I wasn't going to get it stopped in time and the rest seems a blur. I can remember the loud bangs as the truck hit one trailer and pushed it into the next,and the next, and the........ I THINK I hit 4-5 trailers in all. I had only traveled 70-80 feet and had left a 30 foot path of destruction.
I don't remrmber if I ever got my leg inside the truck. I know there wasn't enough room to open the door. My first reaction was to move the truck. I sat up in the seat and try to back up. The truck was jammed against eh trailers just tight enough to prevented truck from moving. I was about to try to "rock it" when the fan started making a horrible noise, like it was hitting the radiator. I immediately shut the engine off to prevent the fan from putting a hole in the radiator. It was at this point, I climbed out the passenger side to see the damage.
It didn't look good. The hood was pushed back, the front fender, air breather and door all damaged. It was at this point when I noticed my leg. It had swollen so much my pants leg was skin tight. The hematoma was around 4 inches square and easily 1 1/2 inches tall. Later it was guessed that it had 1-2 pints of blood in it.
I called our shop foreman and told him I needed a wrecker to pull my truck. He made it out in 12-20 mins. They hooked up a wrecker and pulled the truck away from the trailers. At this point I was sitting in my car since my leg and side was hurting. I guess the adrenaline was still going. They unhook the trailer and pull the truck in the shop to check out the damage. I suggested we call our dispatcher since I was to run a load for a new customer. He called and talked to my dispatcher. At this point there was nothing more for me to do. I explained that I was going home and I was sure that I would be heading for the emergency rom 10 mink after I arrived home.
Needless to say I was sorta right. It was "suggested" we call a Doctor friend of ours and go see him ASAP. We waited for him to open at 7am I believe, Glo drove me over and I pretty much freaked them out with my leg. All I know is I was ok until the Doc started poking on the hematoma. Needless to say I got a little faint and wanted to get sick. I walked over to the restroom and held my head down for a couple of minutes then walked back into the examination room and laid back on the bed until I felt better. At this time this Doc couldn't do anything for me but he did get me an emergency oppointment to an orthopedic Doc that afternoon. To make a long story a little shorter, it was determined that I needed to rest with ice packs on my leg and my leg raised. I was off work for a WHOLE MONTH.
The second week was the worst. My side was still hurting, but I had done a fair amount of walking and all the blood that was in the hematoma, drained down my leg and gave me a horrible bruise from y knee all the way to my foot and even the top half of my foot. All I can say is: Thank goodness for Darvocet.
These pictures were taken 2 weeks after the accident.
June 19,06 3:15am
I arrive at work and place my lunch box in the truck along with my coffee cup. I start the truck while still standing on the running board. This I do every morning to build up the air pressure in the air tanks. For weeks my truck had an air leak in the sleeper air spring and the trailer had an air leak in the air tank mounted on the trailer. Well, both of these were repaired the previous week.
Here's where everything gets a little fuzzy. I reach inside to release the trailer brakes. (The trailer and tractor have separate valves to activate the parking brakes. The one for the tractor is Yellow triangle button and on the right. The trailer is a round Red button and on the left.) The only thing I can think of is I reached in and pushed in on the round Tractor brakes. I turned around and walked the 6-8 feet back to my car to get the directions I needed for the new customer. When I turned around, I saw the truck start rolling. After the immediate shock, I took off after the truck and the trailer. By this time it was rolling at 5-8 mph and picking up speed. Since I hopped on the running boards at the back , I had to walk up the 2-3 feet from the end of the running board to the door.
I can say I made it to the door and had pulled myself partially inside when I reached the first parked trailer. This trailer was stuck out a little further than the others and the door was the first thing to hit. This caused the door to slam back against my side and it also caught my left leg between the door and door frame. I can honestly say this is the first moment I realized that I wasn't going to get it stopped in time and the rest seems a blur. I can remember the loud bangs as the truck hit one trailer and pushed it into the next,and the next, and the........ I THINK I hit 4-5 trailers in all. I had only traveled 70-80 feet and had left a 30 foot path of destruction.
I don't remrmber if I ever got my leg inside the truck. I know there wasn't enough room to open the door. My first reaction was to move the truck. I sat up in the seat and try to back up. The truck was jammed against eh trailers just tight enough to prevented truck from moving. I was about to try to "rock it" when the fan started making a horrible noise, like it was hitting the radiator. I immediately shut the engine off to prevent the fan from putting a hole in the radiator. It was at this point, I climbed out the passenger side to see the damage.
It didn't look good. The hood was pushed back, the front fender, air breather and door all damaged. It was at this point when I noticed my leg. It had swollen so much my pants leg was skin tight. The hematoma was around 4 inches square and easily 1 1/2 inches tall. Later it was guessed that it had 1-2 pints of blood in it.
I called our shop foreman and told him I needed a wrecker to pull my truck. He made it out in 12-20 mins. They hooked up a wrecker and pulled the truck away from the trailers. At this point I was sitting in my car since my leg and side was hurting. I guess the adrenaline was still going. They unhook the trailer and pull the truck in the shop to check out the damage. I suggested we call our dispatcher since I was to run a load for a new customer. He called and talked to my dispatcher. At this point there was nothing more for me to do. I explained that I was going home and I was sure that I would be heading for the emergency rom 10 mink after I arrived home.
Needless to say I was sorta right. It was "suggested" we call a Doctor friend of ours and go see him ASAP. We waited for him to open at 7am I believe, Glo drove me over and I pretty much freaked them out with my leg. All I know is I was ok until the Doc started poking on the hematoma. Needless to say I got a little faint and wanted to get sick. I walked over to the restroom and held my head down for a couple of minutes then walked back into the examination room and laid back on the bed until I felt better. At this time this Doc couldn't do anything for me but he did get me an emergency oppointment to an orthopedic Doc that afternoon. To make a long story a little shorter, it was determined that I needed to rest with ice packs on my leg and my leg raised. I was off work for a WHOLE MONTH.
The second week was the worst. My side was still hurting, but I had done a fair amount of walking and all the blood that was in the hematoma, drained down my leg and gave me a horrible bruise from y knee all the way to my foot and even the top half of my foot. All I can say is: Thank goodness for Darvocet.
These pictures were taken 2 weeks after the accident.
posted by Mddhattr at 5:37 PM
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