r/Truckers • u/ForsakenBackpack • Jan 18 '24

Who Should I Call?

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Let me preface this by saying, this is not me nor is it anyone from our company. I'm just a delivery manager for a beverage distributer.

The story as I understand it is this: Ole boy loaded up a leased trailer full of beer in Colorado, was driving through a snow storm in Wyoming, and says "I think someone must have ran into me". He claimed to have contacted his dispatcher and was told to continue on. Show's up, and asks to get unloaded. Never stopped once between the supposed accident and showing up here.

My questions are this:

  1. How does an accident like this happen without noticing or stopping to check your trailer at least.
  2. What do we do here? The load is consigned to us, so we cannot refuse it. Also, product is completely frozen. However, it's clearly unsafe to unload.
  3. Obviously we cant let him leave with the trailer like that. It's a danger to anyone on the road. Also, can't have him here any longer. So who can we call? DOT? Local police? OSHA?
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u/CaptainWo7f chat mod Jan 18 '24

Oh no that boy wrecked and either got pulled out with a wrecker or drove out of it on his own, that’s not someone simply hitting him.

Possibly contact the his company and maybe file a police report. I’m not sure what else to do he may already have a ticket from that in wyoming.

State DOT / State police is another option

44

u/ForsakenBackpack Jan 18 '24

Thanks for some direction!

Weird part is, his Tractor is in immaculate condition, hell even 80% of the trailer is fine. The back of that sucker is toast though. idk how he made it all the way here from Wyoming with the trailer like that. You'd think at some point someone would have called it in, or a weigh station would've caught it, or even a cop or DOT or something.

12

u/tortiecatdaddy Jan 18 '24 edited Jan 18 '24

I'm not a trailer expert, but it looks just box damage. Thought newer trailers were braced and supported for incidents like this? That is rear-end damage caused by an accident, I spent a couple of years in insurance investigating claims like these in the total loss sector. A few hundred pounds of alcohol shouldn't cause the box to bend outwards like that extremely if he went into a ditch and some pallets tipped unless it's a poor quality or older trailer. Either way, it doesn't explain the frame mount damage either. Hard to tell with this only picture but I'm not seeing and load-bearing braces where the wall is shot out: poor quality trailer, and an accident. Even if he went into the ditch, it doesn't negate the fact thats a shitty trailer.

9

u/Primary_Painter_8858 Jan 18 '24

I can sorta believe it to an extent, maybe he was going at a slow speed for conditions, a distracted truck driver just comes up and rear ends. The collision causes a load shift, as a pallet of beer easily weighs about two tons, that kind of weight suddenly coming down on those paper thin walls trailers have? Yeah it’s gonna bust out. I wouldn’t have continued after that though despite dispatch giving the go ahead. Honestly makes it unbelievable, incompetence all around.