Break-down snarls traffic in Wellsboro
The Wellsboro GazetteCharges are pending against a Ulysses man, following a vehicular breakdown that snarled Wellsboro traffic for hours.
According to Wellsboro Police Chief Thomas Young, a truck and trailer unit loaded with wood chips was traveling west on East Avenue Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 6. The load was on its way to a pellet factory in Ulysses.
Traffic citations are pending against the owner of the pellet factory, Luke Watson of Coudersport, Young added. More..
6 comments :
Do any of those trucks pass inspection!! They look to be in horrible shape.
I wonder....what is the point of fining a driver for traffic violations if he merely broke down? Is there more to the story?
Truck drivers are responsible for the vehicle they drive. They are required, by federal law, to inspect the vehicle before they go on the road and when they return. They are to report any broken or damaged vehicles to the company, for repair. Which in turn makes the company responsible, also. Like most drivers some companies tell their drivers to drive anyway...so where does that leave the driver? Sometimes the choices we make come back to haunt us, unfortunely.
As a CDL driver a pretrip inspection as required by law would probably have prevented this. Unfortunatly not many CDL drivers do this safety step. And a lot of trailers that are used to haul chips are not very well maintained, and are never or seldomly checked.
As a dump truck driver for 15 years, if you find an unsafe condition, it is up to the driver to require repairs before driving the truck. It is not always possible to see a problem in the brief pre-trip inspection, but, if a serious problem is found, it is the driver's responsibility to refuse to drive it until the problem is fixed. I was very fortunate to have bosses who agreed with this policy.
Jim
That whole operation is questionable. Someone should check it out.
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