Sometimes finding interesting articles can be tricky. Believe it or not news can occasionally be dry in our industry. Sometimes though, these stories write themselves. Such is the case in my latest find from Business Insurance magazine online. The story I speak of is a truck driver who was terminated because he refused to drive a truck full of explosives with a co-driver that smoked like a chimney.
Oh..Come On..What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Are You saying that a guy with an open flame could potentially trigger a truck loaded with combustible flammable materials? YES, I think that is clear. What happened next is a case of gasoline being poured on a fire (pun intended). The company terminated the safety mongering driver AND the driver, now turned whistleblower, reported them under the Surface Transportation Act. The result
- The company had to pay the driver over $300,000
- The company had to reinstate him
Lot of things going on with this story..First of all kudos to the driver for not letting me get blown up on the highway because the trucking firm exercised really bad judgement. I learned in first grade that fire should not be near
- Flammable substances
- EXPLOSIVES
Second, I did not know there was a 'Surface Transportation Act'or what it does. Any act that keeps somone from smoking around a truck full of explosives is alright by me. In fact, why don't we change the name to the
'Common Sense Act' or the 'Don't blow up the cars on the highway act'
Finally, I am little nervous that a trucking company would do this. What if the truck blew up and they found traces of cigarettes everywhere? $300,000 would be a dream amount of damages if that was all they would have to pay. In fact, the more I think about this I don't like the term whistleblower being used in a case like this.
This is not a case of someone embezzling money, or cheating the government, or harassing someone on their staff. This is a company unintentionally acting as an accidental urban terrorist putting EVERYONE in serious danger of being blown to pieces. No I do not thing the firm planned to blow up the public but what difference does that make if the public bears the penalty of this stupidly. I think when the common sense gap is this big and the danger this big, the person who tells should be called a hero for standing up for what is right.
Thank you for keeping us safe on the road
Michael Saks
Editor of Haulin
ECTTS
http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20120828/NEWS07/120829889?tags=|70|75|305|84|303|304
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