But, the "truck driver" wasn't a truck driver at all. He was driving a pickup truck!
All to often, I read an article in the newspaper, or see a story on the news about an accident caused by a driver in a pickup truck. The headlines will usually read, "Student Killed by Truck Driver", or something like that. Of course, somewhere in the story a reference may be made to the actual vehicle being a pickup truck but it's usually a quick entry slid in the middle of a paragraph somewhere.
These types of news stories and/or articles are misleading to the public. It's no wonder they typical 4-wheeler is afraid to drive around a real truck.
I don't know who, when, or why it was determined that a pickup truck had any similarity to a truck, but it's so dead-wrong in every sense of the misdirection.
This is what a pickup truck might look like.
This is what a real truck might look like.
The driver of the pickup truck on the left cannot necessarily operate the real truck on the right. Yet, when a story wrongly identifies the driver of the pickup truck as truck driver, or states that a truck was involved in an accident, the public pictures in thier mind the truck on the right, not the one on the left.
Okay, I get it. Just about every state data center classifies a pickup truck as a truck when recording data for accident statistics. But, here again, it is so wrong and presents an injustice to real truck drivers across America. When data is recorded, it is done so with the assignment of a truck, not a pickup truck or utility vehicle (which is what it really should be listed as). So, when records are pulled to check on accident statistics for trucks, these misrepresented entries are polled as well. The only time the statistics will be accurate is if, and when, it is specifically requested that only DOT recordable accidents be included in the polling.
This misrepresentation of the facts malign the overall image and reputation of real truck drivers, of which I am one.
The general perception of the public is when they hear about a truck accident, they usually will automatically assume that it's a big truck. That is, until they happen to run across the word "pickup" truck in the article, if they read that far into it. Unfortunately, we are more inclined to skim through an article or story rather than read it word for word. Thus, we may never see the description of the real kind of "truck" involved. Instead, we are left to our perception that it was a truck driver.
Part of the fault of this misrepresentation must lie with the manufacturer's who promote thier pickup trucks as trucks. Here's the ad copy, "See your 3/4 ton truck powered by Cummins at your local truck dealer today"(Cummins is a well know manufacturer of big truck diesel engines). That's how pickup trucks are promoted nowadays. No wonder there's a misclassification of the vehicle.
So, what can we do about it?
That's the $10.000 question. Aside from being able to find some law that the media and manufacturers are breaking when reporting or promoting these pickup trucks, then there's really not much we can do.
Are we, as truck drivers stuck with the fraudulant claims of those that misidentify a vehicle. Not necessarily. We can move out to educate the public ourselves. We can, when we see these kinds of examples of unjust claims, bring it to the attention of the publishers and other media persons. We can write and submit our own editorial on the subject to those publications, television and radio stations who misrepresent us in thier story.
Whatever we do, we will need to do it as individuals, en masse, pulling in the attention of those who might understand our concern.
After all, is our choice to be truck drivers important enough to us to stand up and demand that reports involving pick-up trucks be clearly stated so that the public is not left to thier own imagination?
Authors Note: The picture featured in this article is from a crash which happened "Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017, at Golden Valley Road and Sierra Highway in Santa Clarita (California) in which a truck rear-ended a car and pushed it into a city bus left one women dead and injured one person on the bus". There was no description in the newspaper report about this accident in which there was any reference made to a pickup truck. Though the picture is self-identifying, the words used in the article referred to the vehicle as just a "truck". Source: www.dailynews.com
Read the full article
All to often, I read an article in the newspaper, or see a story on the news about an accident caused by a driver in a pickup truck. The headlines will usually read, "Student Killed by Truck Driver", or something like that. Of course, somewhere in the story a reference may be made to the actual vehicle being a pickup truck but it's usually a quick entry slid in the middle of a paragraph somewhere.
These types of news stories and/or articles are misleading to the public. It's no wonder they typical 4-wheeler is afraid to drive around a real truck.
I don't know who, when, or why it was determined that a pickup truck had any similarity to a truck, but it's so dead-wrong in every sense of the misdirection.
This is what a pickup truck might look like.
This is what a real truck might look like.
The driver of the pickup truck on the left cannot necessarily operate the real truck on the right. Yet, when a story wrongly identifies the driver of the pickup truck as truck driver, or states that a truck was involved in an accident, the public pictures in thier mind the truck on the right, not the one on the left.
Okay, I get it. Just about every state data center classifies a pickup truck as a truck when recording data for accident statistics. But, here again, it is so wrong and presents an injustice to real truck drivers across America. When data is recorded, it is done so with the assignment of a truck, not a pickup truck or utility vehicle (which is what it really should be listed as). So, when records are pulled to check on accident statistics for trucks, these misrepresented entries are polled as well. The only time the statistics will be accurate is if, and when, it is specifically requested that only DOT recordable accidents be included in the polling.
This misrepresentation of the facts malign the overall image and reputation of real truck drivers, of which I am one.
The general perception of the public is when they hear about a truck accident, they usually will automatically assume that it's a big truck. That is, until they happen to run across the word "pickup" truck in the article, if they read that far into it. Unfortunately, we are more inclined to skim through an article or story rather than read it word for word. Thus, we may never see the description of the real kind of "truck" involved. Instead, we are left to our perception that it was a truck driver.
Part of the fault of this misrepresentation must lie with the manufacturer's who promote thier pickup trucks as trucks. Here's the ad copy, "See your 3/4 ton truck powered by Cummins at your local truck dealer today"(Cummins is a well know manufacturer of big truck diesel engines). That's how pickup trucks are promoted nowadays. No wonder there's a misclassification of the vehicle.
So, what can we do about it?
That's the $10.000 question. Aside from being able to find some law that the media and manufacturers are breaking when reporting or promoting these pickup trucks, then there's really not much we can do.
Are we, as truck drivers stuck with the fraudulant claims of those that misidentify a vehicle. Not necessarily. We can move out to educate the public ourselves. We can, when we see these kinds of examples of unjust claims, bring it to the attention of the publishers and other media persons. We can write and submit our own editorial on the subject to those publications, television and radio stations who misrepresent us in thier story.
Whatever we do, we will need to do it as individuals, en masse, pulling in the attention of those who might understand our concern.
After all, is our choice to be truck drivers important enough to us to stand up and demand that reports involving pick-up trucks be clearly stated so that the public is not left to thier own imagination?
Authors Note: The picture featured in this article is from a crash which happened "Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017, at Golden Valley Road and Sierra Highway in Santa Clarita (California) in which a truck rear-ended a car and pushed it into a city bus left one women dead and injured one person on the bus". There was no description in the newspaper report about this accident in which there was any reference made to a pickup truck. Though the picture is self-identifying, the words used in the article referred to the vehicle as just a "truck". Source: www.dailynews.com
Read the full article
