KEN'S KORNER - APRIL 2009
SAFETY OUTSIDE THE TRUCK
BY AUTHOR, EDUCATOR & DRIVER KEN SKAGGS
There is an overwhelming amount of material on trucking safety. You can find safety tips everywhere, from the web to the CB radio. Everybody (including me on my own website at www.bigcitydriver.com) has something to add to the ever-expanding knowledge base of trucking safety. But, try to find something on safety outside the truck, and there’s nothing. So, I thought that it would be a good time to write a little about the subject.
For the most part, a driver feels pretty safe in his truck, but occasionally he has to get out and walk (and sometimes it isn’t in the best neighborhood or one he is familiar with). Oftentimes, drivers find themselves in desolated places at inconvenient times. Whether it’s an industrial area on a Saturday (when everything is closed) or some strange city street late at night, drivers need to be careful when they get out of their truck.
Let’s face it - truck drivers are targets for thieves and robbers. They think we all have money. Of course, some do (like unmarried drivers who don’t have any bills to pay). But, for the most part, we are just working class dogs like everybody else, trying to pay our bills and struggling from week to week. Thieves don’t see it that way though. They see a truck and figure there is likely a couple of hundred dollars in your pocket, and a bonanza inside the truck, too. So we have to be careful - not only when driving, but where we park, when we park, where we get out and walk, when we get out and walk, how much cash we carry, how we flaunt it, etc.
About ten years ago, I bought a nice car - a two-year-old, red Firebird with t-tops. It was a beautiful car, and it came with a big payment and high insurance rates. For the next four years, I would question myself as to why I took that plunge as I struggled each month to make that payment. With a low down payment and a high interest rate, it really wasn’t a smart buy for me at the time. I couldn’t really afford it. I bought it on impulse, simply because I loved it. Well, the point is, one day my niece, who was eighteen at the time, asked me if she could borrow some money - a lot of money. I said no, explaining that I didn’t have that kind of money. She was flabbergasted, insisting I did, because I had that car. She thought the presence of that car proved I had money. I explained to her that the car was the reason why I didn’t have any money! A few years and a few children later, I’m sure she realizes it now.
The point is - big, flashy, fun, expensive things make young, inexperienced (or desperate) people think you have money. If you get out of a shiny new truck, wearing snakeskin boots and a ten-gallon hat, you’ll have to be careful exactly where you go, and where you park. Think about it.
I watched one of those forensic shows one day (maybe you saw it too), and there was a truck driver who got killed in his truck. As the investigators studied the scene, they determined that he was probably shot right through the window as he sat in his seat. He was parked late at night at the place he was supposed to deliver to, which was closed until morning, and he was the only one there. They shot him, took his wallet, his TV and who knows what else. Luckily, there was a witness that spotted a suspicious vehicle and a camera that saw the vehicle too, and the criminals were caught. But still, a driver was killed simply because he was alone and an easy target.
Not only do we truck drivers have to watch out for thieves and thugs, we have to be careful of other hazards. Simply walking through a busy truck stop can get you killed. Just last night I saw a truck flying through a Love’s parking lot, going about forty miles per hour. His trailer leaned hard as he whipped around a corner and blew past a BBQ rib truck with five or six drivers standing there (by the way, those are some awesome ribs that guy sells at the Love’s in Houston, TX). I turned my CB on to tell him off, but someone else beat me to it. He never responded, he just blasted out the driveway and down the road. Of course, there are actual cases of drivers getting killed, run over by a truck in a truck stop.
A truck almost hit me one day, at the Petro in Knoxville, TN. I saw him stop to talk to a few drivers that were standing there. As I walked in front of his truck, I looked up at him for eye contact, but his head was turned as he talked to those drivers. Then, without warning, his truck lurched forward as he took off. I jumped and put my left hand out to block it. As I was in the air on my jump, the grill pushed my left hand, propelling me a few extra feet out of the way. I yelled, “Hey!” He stopped on a dime and said, “What?” And I answered, “You almost hit me.” Then he said, “How could I, you’re way over there?” I answered, “I am now because I jumped.” He apologized, and I reminded him to look around before taking off next time. An older driver who saw the whole thing admitted to me that if it were him in front of that truck, he would have probably been run over. I thank God I was born with good reflexes and had the right reaction to jump as I did. But that was close.
Yes, safety outside the truck is just as important as safety behind the wheel. You have to watch out for traffic, even in a truck stop. You have to be careful where you park, when you park, where you walk, what you carry, and more than I can even mention here. Don’t be so paranoid that you don’t go anywhere, but be aware of your surroundings and watch your back out there. For more useful information, be sure to visit www.bigcitydriver.com today.