A particular trucking company (probably all of the major ones) has a policy in effect that allows drivers the option to pay for any damages they cause to the companies equipment in the event of an accident.
If the driver opts to pay out of his pocket for damages, the "accident" is reduced to an "incident" and not considered a significant negative mark on their 12 month (or overall, for that matter) review.
Its important to point out that this only applies if no accident report is filed officially. Obviously, if this filing went through the proper channels, it would appear on their MVR forever and always.
The accident I was involved in some many months back (the first of two bad accidents in 7 months, both not at fault and totally unavoidable) sparked this question after a first continuing interrogatories and discovery uncovered this policy.
This driver had an internal memo sent to him by the safety coordinator in april of 2006 acknowledging his desire to pay for an accident so that it may be reduced to an "incident." In August of 2009 this same driver paid cash out of pocket to another driver after causing an accident which was never reported and never acknowledged by his company (although he admitted this freely in the discovery interview with his own attorney). November of 2009 (just 2 1/2 months later) this driver collided with me and tried very hard (very well versed high pressure sales tactic) to "buy" his way out of this accident. All of this resulted in his being suspended for 5 days (Yeah, despite dozens of tickets and 4 at fault accidents in the last 7 years, he still drives for them). The written internal accident report is signed by this driver and below it in his hand writing states "I am willing to pay for all damages" presumably to their tractor rig.
His driving record contains nothing but moving violations. Speeding, following too closely resulting in accident, failure to maintain lane, improper lane change, driving erratically, obstructing the flow of traffic, etc. really makes me nervous. We may never know how many accidents he really has bought his way out of..
All that considered, it appears the company policy instigates these drivers to throw money at people to avoid having the real number of accidents appear on their driving record. Could the company be held liable for the policy that allows (and encourages, apparently) these drivers to buy their way out of trouble?
I'm curious which areas of law would be relevant to this.
Even some keywords I can use to search/educate myself on this matter would be a big help.
What would the tort dealing with this type of policy be called?
How much impact would this evidence have on you personally considering we can never know the true ability or inability of a driver who can "purchase" a better driving record?
If the driver opts to pay out of his pocket for damages, the "accident" is reduced to an "incident" and not considered a significant negative mark on their 12 month (or overall, for that matter) review.
Its important to point out that this only applies if no accident report is filed officially. Obviously, if this filing went through the proper channels, it would appear on their MVR forever and always.
The accident I was involved in some many months back (the first of two bad accidents in 7 months, both not at fault and totally unavoidable) sparked this question after a first continuing interrogatories and discovery uncovered this policy.
This driver had an internal memo sent to him by the safety coordinator in april of 2006 acknowledging his desire to pay for an accident so that it may be reduced to an "incident." In August of 2009 this same driver paid cash out of pocket to another driver after causing an accident which was never reported and never acknowledged by his company (although he admitted this freely in the discovery interview with his own attorney). November of 2009 (just 2 1/2 months later) this driver collided with me and tried very hard (very well versed high pressure sales tactic) to "buy" his way out of this accident. All of this resulted in his being suspended for 5 days (Yeah, despite dozens of tickets and 4 at fault accidents in the last 7 years, he still drives for them). The written internal accident report is signed by this driver and below it in his hand writing states "I am willing to pay for all damages" presumably to their tractor rig.
His driving record contains nothing but moving violations. Speeding, following too closely resulting in accident, failure to maintain lane, improper lane change, driving erratically, obstructing the flow of traffic, etc. really makes me nervous. We may never know how many accidents he really has bought his way out of..
All that considered, it appears the company policy instigates these drivers to throw money at people to avoid having the real number of accidents appear on their driving record. Could the company be held liable for the policy that allows (and encourages, apparently) these drivers to buy their way out of trouble?
I'm curious which areas of law would be relevant to this.
Even some keywords I can use to search/educate myself on this matter would be a big help.
What would the tort dealing with this type of policy be called?
How much impact would this evidence have on you personally considering we can never know the true ability or inability of a driver who can "purchase" a better driving record?
