grayhair

Gotta rant on a subject you will all agree on!! How often do you get 100 percent agreement on anything!  Question "when is a truck not a truck"? Read a ladies comment in Consumer Reports today.She  Was saying that her seatbelt use and the air bags and "crumple zones in her late model minivan probably saved her life. Who can't agree with that certainly not me! I quote "A truck pulled out in front of me"! Define "truck" madam! I promise you 90percent of the85 percent non trucker subscribers are picturing a thundering 18 wheeler with a criminal sociopath at the wheel!! Since she didn't elaborate, here are a few potential scenarios: A pickup, a straight truck under 26000gvw therefore requiring no cdl, the same straight truck with an undocumented immigrant at the wheel( since they are permitted to receive a drivers license including an interpreter) in many states! If you require an interpreter, how do you read the road signs? I've got a buddy down the road who is a legal Cuban immigrant whose dad spent 11 yrs in Castro's prison, and I used to load in Miami where the foreman, another legal immigrant gave me his impeccably maintained 64 Chevrolet to go get takeout food. So I'm not anti immigrant just anti illegal immigrant! The media has been using the word truck for years to describe many vehicles that don't fit OUR definition of " truck" because it  evokes the average citizens bias against large usually professionally driven vehicles. My favorite example of this is familiar to most of you who run the Southeast, I believe it's on I 65 in Kentucky there was a school bus crash where all or most of the children burned to death I have tears in my eyes 30 years later just thinking of it! Well the state of Kentucky initially put up a memorial saying it was a  "truck bus crash" Well the truck was a Toyota p.u with some drunken asshole at the wheel and the trucking  industry complained so avidly that they changed the sign!

Ever see one of those ads on tv " Involved in a semi trailer accident," call (insert name of one of the hundreds of "ambulance chasing" law firms) The vast majority of major carriers will settle out of court even if they aren't at fault! Barring really obvious cases (proven dui or drug use by the claimant etc) Than face  a jury! Due to todays level of anti truck bias! Truck involved accident cases are a law firms gold mine!