Suicide By Truck

Hey there my friends and family - I hope todays message finds you well. I know it is tough to have all great days and that is a bit of what today’s show is related to regarding our trucker buddies out in the wild crazy public arena. Welcome to episode 8 of Truckers Have Feelings. A few days back I came across a site called healthytruck.org. As I was looking around the site, an article really caught my attention - “Depression in Truckers” As I was reading through this article I remembered a situation which happened in Ontario to team drivers we had on our fleet back in 1998. It was a husband and wife team who were really good people and awesome drivers. Sometimes life just simply got in the way and they weren’t always able to drive together so there were times he would go while she had personal things which needed tending to. There was this one time when he went solo and had been on the road for a bit over a few weeks. He was on his way back home, I believe (details are a bit fuzzy) but here is what happen: I am pretty sure he was travelling eastbound on the 400 series highway outside of Toronto with a load of steel pipe. A lot of you listening to this would understand how backed up the traffic can get around supper time at the end of a busy day in the Toronto area. Well this particular day was no different. It was a blessing that she had not been able to join her husband during this trip …. As he was slowing down into a lineup of traffic a semi-truck was approaching from the rear at a high speed and decided to slam into our guys rig killing himself on impact - our driver was hurt very badly and not to drag this story on too long, he ended up being off work for over a year due to injuries received in this crash - had his wife been in the rig that day she would not have survived. As time passed it was confirmed the driver of the rig that slammed into our guys was suffering from depression and had been suffering for quite some time however he “never” made it known to anyone as he figured he had it under control. Most people when they hear this type of story think of a deranged trucker, a mad max type of guy heading down the road waiting to run anyone over who gets in the way … apparently the guy who crashed into our guy was a good fellow but depression and life events got the worst of him in that moment. In my opinion it is rare to hear of another trucker killing himself by running into one of his or her trucking comrades and most truckers out there tend to do every thing in their power to avoid crashes especially when human life is directly at risk. The stories that are not rare are hearing of people jumping off of bridges right in front of trucks or running out into the path of these rigs - back in 1985-1986 there was a lady who was walking her granddaughter along side of the highway outside of Antigonish NS - she pushed her granddaughter into the ditch so she could avoid her getting hurt physically and then jumped without warning directly in front of a speeding semi-truck. These truckers are targets because of the size of their rigs, when committing these acts I don’t believe anyone is in their right minds so to speak and all they see is a machine coming down the road that they figure will do the job, which in their mind needs to be done in that moment. If they were in their right minds and realized there was a human being driving that rig, a person who has to live with this situation for the rest of their lives …. Then I don’t believe they would use a semi truck to get this job done. You might be wondering what happens to the truck driver: - Here is the first thing - the authorities check the drivers log book to make sure they are abiding by the regulations and hours of operation. A drug test is done immediately - for the most part they are segregated like a criminal until cleared of any wrong doing. - Now they have to find a way to live with it - some truckers internalize what happen, some but few get help emotionally, some commit suicide as they can’t handle it , some turn to drugs and drinking in their off time - and those are only the ones we hear about. Truckers have so much stress and time alone - and with the majority of the trucking population being made up of men … well there is too much of no discussion about the events or seeking help. They know they have feelings of depression and maybe even PTSD but are often too embarrassed about the matter and choose to ignore it and ride the wave avoiding any help. I want to dedicate this episode to those who are suffering from depression and encourage all to talk about it, if you don’t understand how you are feeling talk to your family, friends and doctor. YOU MATTER! Episode 9 will be coming up next Sunday - until then take care and be well!