I have traveled many miles across this great nation of ours meeting many great men and women along the way. However I’m not going to sit here and try to paint this pretty picture about trucking like all the men and women are great because the fact of the matter is there are many, many douche bags. Just when I thought I had met, seen, heard of the most notorious of douche bags this country has to offer out of no where like a burning sensation the day after partying with truck stop hookers comes Donald Crawford.

( alright, maybe not such a big surprise, LOL :->)

The story goes something like this;

Donald thrown out on his head by the bouncers of Sassy Kat’s Showclub in Indianapolis, Indiana after a 45 minute hardcore session of pounding back drinks like his life depended on it. He brings himself to his feet, dazed, confused, and mildly retarded. He slowly stumbles his way across the parking lot trying to shake off what appears to be a vagina high. At some point he starts to panic when he can’t find his truck, he calls 911.

“911 whats your emergency?”

“my truck has been stolen and my son is inside” Donald reports

This is the condensed version of the report as it took Donald four minutes to spit out what just took you five seconds to read.

Upon arriving to the scene the officers realized Donald was not the victim of theft he was plastered drunk and smelled of moldy snatch. Putting two and two together the officers had figured he had been at the titty bar, they went to the strip joint where they confirmed that Donald was in fact at the bar acting like a ten year old who just seen his first issue of playboy. Back at the truck stop they found Donald’s truck door unlocked  keys in the ignition and his five year old inside passed out from watching cartoons. Way to go super dad, your sir are the biggest asshole in the world.  The officers had found the mother of the child was in nearby Franklin, Indiana they called and she came down to pick up the kid and I’m sure what money if any he had left over as this douche bag is not going to make a paycheck for a long time.

Question: What do you think is wrong with this bastard? If he wanted to go to the strip club why not take the kid home to mommy and go back to the club or would she not like the idea of him being entertained by other women?  He must of thought he was home free if he had the kid and she wouldn’t suspect a thing? What you think?

I thought I was one tough trucker.

The American Trucker is often seen as the last American mountain man, a nomad of sorts traveling across America through some of the worst of conditions to deliver his freight. A way of life for most, a job for others but one thing is for certain.  We’re a tough as nails subculture who can  do more then tell you about what it takes to keep a nation running we can show you the bruises.

As I like to say “trucking is not for pussies“. I have seen men travel under some really bad conditions and when I say conditions I’m not talking about the weather in this case. Most people have the luxury to call out if they feel a cold coming on. Have you had the flu or a cold lately? did you call out of work?  When normal civilians can call their doctor and schedule a appointment to take care of their health that is often not a option for a trucker who could be thousands of miles away from his doctor, if he even has one.

I once had a medical emergency that was life threatening, So I drove myself to the ER in Pasadena CA they told me “you can’t park that big truck here!” I said “watch me #$@#$ I’m about to die!!”. Finding a legal place to park to seek medical attention is another huge problem in the trucking industry.

I have dealt with all kinds of medical conditions on the road before I could get home or to a qualified doctor to take care of myself such as: broken bones, abscessed teeth. pinched nerves etc.. No one should have to compromise their health, their safety and the life of everyone around them because no one is there to help in their time of need or they’re to stubborn to seek out help. When I first started driving I hated the idea of taking time of to take care of my health after many health problems and nearly loosing my life on several occasions I realized taking care of your health should be every drivers number one priority.

I digress, I want to share a story with you about one trucker who’s medical situation makes my “dealt with medical problems list”  look like a whiny excuse to write a article. Trucker Jason Ripley was cruising through Darlington, Co Durham when he hit a crash barrier. What is so strange about that, you say “it happens everyday” you say “stop wasting my fu#king time” you say.  Alright mother #$@$# I’ll get to it. What makes this different is not only that he was impaled by a 8ft pole but that he was conscious enough to call his boss and say “I’ve had a bit of an accident - I’m in a spot of bother sir.“  That is truly a tough trucker. Jason recovered and was back to work shortly after the accident.

Have you ever felt like the highway patrol was out to get you?

Normally I would say “Driver your just being pessimistic that officer was just doing his job”, Or are they? Now former Wyoming highway patrol officer Franklin Ryle Jr. definitely wasn’t “just doing his job”. Franklin Ryle Jr. dreamed up a scheme that he thought would make him rich over night!

Franklin Ryle Jr.

His plan: To arrest a Wal-Mart truck driver under bogus claims that he had a warrant in Colorado,  murder him and stage a crash in order to collect a settlement from the company. On top of that he had planned to throw his wife into the mix and collect on her life insurance.

The investigation of Ryle began in mid-January after his brother-in-law - a Casper police officer - contacted Highway Patrol officials in Cheyenne to report that Ryle had planned to collect a settlement from Wal-Mart by staging an accident involving his patrol car and a company truck, according to the affidavit, which was signed by FBI Special Agent Richard Fanelli.

On Jan. 15, Wal-Mart truck driver Richard Smidt showed up at a Highway Patrol office in Cheyenne and told an official he’d been stopped by Ryle a week earlier while driving on Interstate 25 near Douglas. Smidt said Ryle arrested him on a Colorado warrant and drove him to Douglas in his patrol car.

Smidt told the Highway Patrol that Ryle stopped at a home in Douglas and went inside for 10 minutes, leaving him handcuffed in the car. Ryle eventually returned and drove Smidt back to his truck and released him, claiming there had been a mistake about the warrant.

The Highway Patrol asked the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation to look into the matter on Jan. 16. Two state agents spoke with Ryle the same day, and according to the affidavit, the trooper admitted to stopping a Wal-Mart truck and arresting the driver on Jan. 8 near Douglas. He claimed a radio check revealed there was a warrant for the driver, but after driving to Douglas, a second check indicated the warrant information was incorrect.

The agents also questioned Ryle about why the traffic stop hadn’t been recorded by his patrol car’s camera. Ryle said he must have forgotten to insert a hard drive into the new camera, according to the affidavit. In the same interview, Ryle denied planning to use the Wal-Mart truck to stage an accident.

I call BS I can smell a lie like a fart in a car and this “claim of his” has stank all over it.

Ryle pleaded guilty to felony charges for depriving a trucker of his rights and using a firearm in a violent crime. Ryle faces up to 19 years in prison for the murder scheme. Ryle is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 29 by U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Wyoming.

A psychiatrist has concluded the former state trooper suffered from “reduced mental capacity” when he kidnapped the trucker while on duty in January, federal court documents show.

However, the prosecutor in the case claims the psychiatrist’s report on Franklin Ryle Jr. is unreliable because the doctor failed to consider a pattern of criminal activity beyond Ryle’s money-making scheme to murder the trucker.

Read the full story on trib.com

What do you think about this, is this officer crazy? How would you as a driver deal with a lunatic like this? That I’m not even sure about.

A German trucker flipped his rig in western Sweden last week and admitted to police to pleasuring himself at the time of the accident, a Swedish newspaper reports.The unbelievably unsatisfied trucker proceeded to continue to masturbate while discussing the accident with police, the paper reported.

“He was masturbating while the police interrogated him,” police prosecutor Åsa Askenbäck told the newspaper. “He has admitted that he was not paying full attention at the time of the accident. He was playing with himself instead of focusing on the road.”

The crash closed lanes of the highway in both directions as the debris was cleared from the roadway. According to the paper, “The man remained in the vehicle with his hands apparently still clasped around his own gear stick and was subsequently arrested for reckless driving and driving while under the influence of drugs.” The trucker admitted to all charges levied against him, including sexual molestation, the paper reported.  It is not clear what penalty the man may face, but a stiff fine is possible.

I had always wondered what happen to Pee Wee Herman after they canceled his show for his masturbating escapades in Sarasota, FL. Looks like he followed in the path of Large Marge and did what many other people do who feel sh!t on in there current profession, quit and start driving trucks.

When was the last time you got your head cracked open for doing your job?

Clayton Agostini started off September 15, 2009 like it was any other day however this day would end with a beating and eating bad food at the hospital, which just totally disgust me! He just finished up a delivery in the Union Industrial Estate, which leads to the Trinidad Generation Unlimited (TGU) power plant being built to supply the Alutrint aluminum smelter stalled by a court order.

You see earlier last week some 350 workers downed tools to demand better terms and conditions of work. The company responded by locking out workers last Friday. Work on the $708 million power plant has been stalled since. I could see how this would piss off a group of workers who just wanted what was right for them

Clayton Agostini had just finished his delivery and was on his way out of the park when a angry group of protesters started to slam his truck with rocks, being blinded by glass he stepped out of his truck and was smashed in the head with a rock. Which sounds similar to the Reginald Denny beating during the Los Angeles riots back in the ninety’s. It is total fu#ked in both cases.

One of the protesters said “We were meeting in front of the gate and the truck wanted to go in, so we asked the driver to wait a bit but he just drove by, bouncing the man, and didn’t even stop.” No one could confirm if this even happened, no police reports where filed. Even if it did happen how about calling the fu@king cops and deal with the situation in a rational way. Yes you motherfuc^er$ are out of work, that sucks, I understand but damn. One thing is for sure, if this was my truck, in this situation the report would have been more like “trucker kills thirty protesters trying to save his life”

What would you do in this situation, would you take a as$whipping or roll a son of a b!tch over?

Bad Road Conditions

The economy is strongly impacting the trucking industry

The blind spot  radio talk show is a leader in trucking industry news and product information for the truck driving community. In this episode of the blind spot trucker talk show we talked with trucking industry experts and friends from around the world about the recent truck stop acquisitions and the American truckers Association’s push for larger vehicles.

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