We’ve all heard the expression but has anyone on here ever actually taken a dead man’s job??
On the same day I passed my mobile crane test last week some poor sod got knocked off of his moped in Nottingham whilst on his way to work and tragically passed away. Turns out he was a crane driver for a local firm.
Thought I might struggle to get my foot in the door with a smaller company that keeps you local and gets you home every day at a reasonable hour so you can have a bit of a “normal” life.
I guess if I don’t take the job somebody else will but it still feels a bit weird.
Called down the yard a few days ago to have a chat with the owner and they were clearing his gear out of the cab.
Was rather excited and enthusiastic to get cracking on Monday morning and then I just remembered the reason why I have been offered the job in the first place and felt a bit guilty.
Kind of wish I wasn’t getting the job now if that makes any sense??
Pretty ■■■■■■■ sobering really… A normal guy just set off to do an honest day’s work and didn’t get the chance to come home again.
RIP DRIVE.
Got called in on agency in 2011 to cover a guy who’d died at work the previous friday at a Crossways locale depot. (Heart attack whilst inside the depot, not while driving)
I didn’t get told I was covering for a guy that had died until the end of the shift.
I didn’t have the heart to “put in for the impromptu vacancy” despite the fact that this particular job was one of the best I ever had on the agency… 
The firm’s don’t seem that bothered about getting a replacement driver so why should you feel awkward
I’m with Kr on this. The job has got to be done, it’s not like the firm are going to sell the motor and never replace it
If you’re the sentimental type then give your respects/pray/whatever it is you feel like doing. I’m not religious myself but whenever I hear of someone dying I hope they rest in peace and think about the poor family.
But you know different strokes.
Nah, not really religious… These things happen unfortunately and the company have got to earn money… Those cranes aren’t exactly cheap… I suppose when your time is up there’s not much you can do about it… That’s not much consolation for the man’s family though…
I was in the same boat. Fella at work died behind the wheel (parked up) after not feeling well. I’ve got his old truck. Respect to him and his family may he rest in peace.
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Unfortunately, life has to go on. It’s a sad fact and the only one that we can believe, that everyone’s gotta go sometimes. Some before their time sadly.
I did once. Wasnt a driving job. I just answered a job ad and got the job. I found out a while later that the person I had replaced had died from methanol poisioning.
Aparantly it turned out he had a drink problem, but the firm used methanol as part of an industrial process, and there was a drain tap on the equipment.
Methanol like normal alcohol gets you drunk but its highley poisionous.
This guy had been taking a bit and mixing it into a 2 litre bottle of pop. As he was working nights on his own in his particular department nobody had twigged what was going on.
On his last night he must have over done it because his wife called the following day to say he was sick. A bit later she said hed been taken to hospital and had gone blind.
By the time the doctors had twigged what had happen he had died.
The ironic thing was that the antidote to methanol poisioning is to drink a lot of strong spirits like vodka or whisky. It stops your body breaking down the metanol into a poision as it breaks down the alcahol in the spirits insted and the metanol just gets flushed out.
Turns out 25ml of metanol was enough to send you blind 50ml was enough to kill you.
This bloke had a wife and kid, and I always thought how much of a desperate state he must have been in resort to drinking industrial chemicals taken from dirty pipework. 
Worked for a firm in late 80’ where a driver died in his sleep in his truck in the yard . A few of the drivers walking around pushing out tears for the guy all in turn went into office to ask for his truck ( only F16 on the fleet ) Bloke still laid out in truck … Funny old lot ain’t we
My first artic was a FL10. Someone had died in it at Strensham, (heart attack). The next driver that had it got killed on a motorbike. Then I had it
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON.That was the war time spirit.Put it out of your mind its not as though you knew the man.
My night trunk driver collapsed and died on the M3, he managed to get it on the hard shoulder, the police found him in the early hours, engine ticking over, headlights still on.
I had to go and collect the wagon, all his gear still there, I’d known him for years, very emotional drive back to the depot…
i would have ■■■■■■ mysef laughing if you was slowly driving it back to the yard thinking poor old john when all of a sudden it went cold and his ghost appeard in the passenger seat with a loud BOO
That’s very sad Duck, but as others have said; Life goes on…
Best of luck and hope it goes well! 
aye ,ended up wae a “dead Mans shoes” driving job…the auld boys life had fell apart bad time at work just went home and done the deed (job was near impossible to get into otherwise ),I was told the last driver taken on was 5yrs earlier and that was a retirement but as time went on it became a rotating door job ,you saw a new face in the morning and in the afternoon he was gone…Stuck it for near 22yrs and died a bit inside 
each yr. It is amazing what you put up with to look forward for a good pension