I was involved in a RTA a few weeks ago (rollover) and I’m lucky enough to say that I walked away from it pretty unscathed to be honest, the majority of the injuries you will see below were from when I released the seat belt to try to get out, the wagon was on its side and i fell into the passenger seat area and landed on the seat/truck fitted fridge/personal possessions that came lose in the roll over.
Please please people wear a seat belt every time you’re in the cab
I walked away from this with pretty minor injuries as you will see below, I guess the cough extra padding helped a little bit as well.
The Bruise on the top of my thigh (where it hit the steering wheel i think)
The outside of my right calf (more muscle damage than bruising with a slight cut)
The bruise on the inside of my right knee (where it hit the key and snapped the key clean off in the ignition)
My Elbow (from where I landed on the seat and other bits)
And finally my back
to boot I got bruised ribs (didn’t know they could find them in all the lard) and the only other injuries are mental ones, I don’t know if I can get in a truck again let alone drive one, just being in the yard for the inquiry last week had me shaking and feeling like crying just by looking at them.
So please people wear a seat belt, it will save you. (Just have a plan in place for when you release it, don’t try and hold on to the driver’s door as you release it, it just hurts your hands.)
Having also been on my side recently I can vouch for the seatbelt too. It allowed me to walk away without even a scratch. I was lucky as it looks like I hit much softer ground than you but I know how hard to take it is. I’m not ashamed to admit it hit me hard and I did cry about it too. All I wanted to do after it happens was walk away, go home and never ever get in a truck again. It was without doubt the hardest day of my driving career and I’m getting a bit emotional writing about it now. Luckily for me although it didn’t seem that way at the time the company gave me a nearly new Magnum to drive straight after. Luckily because the only way you’ll drive again is to get in a truck and drive it, and you will. It’s hard and it’ll be nerve wracking but little by little your confidence will return. You can do it and I wish you the best of luck.
I can also recommend the wearing of seatbelts after i was blown over onto the drivers side on the M80 in Scotland just after christmas…unfortunately i still broke my pelvis in 3 places and scraped my arm as i slid down the road and had a few cuts and bruises…I’m still off work now!!!
I did go through a phase a few years back of not wearing one after listening to a few drivers,but luckily i saw sense as my injuries could’ve been a hell of a lot worse if i hadn’t been wearing one.
I am now an advocate for not keeping ■■■■ outside in the footwell or generally outside of lockers and cupboards in the cab as everything just went everywhere,even the bed lifted up and everything underneath came out,tins of food,pots,pans etc…i have lost a hell of a lot of trucking paraphernalia…luckily(how it happened i dont know with all the mess in the cab)but the police pulled out my wallet,keys,ipad and my 3 phones and bought them to hospital,i still dont know what else they managed to get but it can be replaced…i’m still alive and that’s all that matters.
What have Maritime said,you still got your job??
My last major RTA was outside the truck, getting squeezed between mine and theirs as it moved. It took me about 6 weeks off work for the physical injuries to heal enough to go back to work, then it was at least a year before the shakes started any time I was unstable on my feet, such as on slippery things.
I still view large vehicles with great care and there are times I see stupidity on the roads and cringe in remembrance, but it does get easier to manage over time.
The advice is take one day at a time, have a few months off and when you go back, go back with light duties if you can, don’t push it and it’ll come over time. But likewise, don’t give up on your career as when things improve you can be a better driver for it.
I’d also say get well soon, perhaps a little exercise. Exercise will also reduce your insulation, although it took 3 years for the bulges to ease back from where the truck had moved stuff under the skin into piled up places, and the marks from the stretching of the stomach…
I am still quite vocal when I see tailgater’s or idiots on the road, sorry but a side effect of my injury.
I had a nearside rollover about 11 years ago and at the time I didn’t wear a seatbelt. Must admit I took a fair battering on my fall to the passenger footwell.
It did shake me up but my boss at the time backed me and I was back driving within the week which looking back was the best thing I could have done. It took a while to get the confidence back and even to this day I’m still very cautious on the roundabout at which I rolled over.
I didn’t contemplate the issue of seatbelts at the time and admit its only been the last couple of years that I’ve started to wear one and that was only because I got another scania and I find myself hunching over the wheel in them if I don’t wear a belt.
Having got used to wearing a belt I now feel odd without it and although the scania is long gone I will always wear a belt now. It’s become automatic as in the car.
As a humorous aside on that fateful day one of the first drivers on the scene was a guy I knew from the docks in Southampton. As I stood there in a bit of a daze looking at the underside of the truck he shouted across the road “any decent driver would take this opportunity to get the grease gun out”. It still makes me chuckle to this day.
Getting back into the saddle as soon as is a good recommendation.
Of the evening of the accident a ‘friend’ and colleague unwittingly locked me in the yard as he thought I had had left, when I had in fact moved my gear to my car and was waiting in the passenger seat for him to drive my car out of the gates. I had my right arm in a sling and could barely move, and he [zb] off and locked the [zb] gates behind him!!! My car was parked next to his truck and I was facing his car, he just didn’t seem to look in my direction at all!!!
[zb] struggled to get the gate unlocked and open one armed and very fragile at which point another mate turned up who cycled into work and lived near me, so he drove me and the car home and we shoved his bike in the back. He was a bit more down to earth
neilf:
As a humorous aside on that fateful day one of the first drivers on the scene was a guy I knew from the docks in Southampton. As I stood there in a bit of a daze looking at the underside of the truck he shouted across the road “any decent driver would take this opportunity to get the grease gun out”. It still makes me chuckle to this day.
Sometimes it is these humorous comments that keep things together Alas my quips are usually slow and miles behind…
Either way, we do learn from our mistakes, don’t we?
