On Monday Febuary 09,1998 I was involved in a serious wreck. I was on my way to work at about 4:45 a.m. From what they tell me it was foggy that morning. The reason I say that is because I don't remember a thing about that morning or the rest of the week. Witnesses say that I never hit my brakes or tried to avoid the BFI truck so I must have not seen it. I never thought about it before but now that this has happened I do not think that these trucks should run before daylight. They are painted a dark blue for those of you that have not seen one. And they have little in the way of safety lighting. All they have is the brake lights and some of them have a small strobe light on top of the truck. If these trucks are going to be running before daylight they should have more safety features. Maybe they could be a brighter color, have more lighting, or reflectors on the back of them. Maybe all of these things. I'm not worried about the injuries I recieved, they will heal. I'm thinking more of the men and women that work on these trucks. In my wreck a BFI worker was killed. This has weighed very heavily on me. If there was anything I could do to change that fact I most definately would. I wish this would never have happened. But I can't change it. That's why I decided to make this page.
Please be more aware of these types of trucks in your travels. I don't mean specifically garbage trucks, I mean all types of vehicles that make frequent stops, especially if they do so before daylight. If someone that reads this and avoids one wreck, this page will be worthwhile. The men and women that work on these vehicles deserve our being a little more cautious around them. I know after a while these vehicles tend to be a little more invisable to us. We see them so often that we start to not really think of them. Please do your best to not fall into this trap it is a deadly trap. Always take notice of them and give them some extra room when you are around them. The workers on these vehicles deserve it. And you deserve it too. I would hate to see this happen to anyone else.
Here are some pictures of my truck after the wreck. It use to be a 1993 Ford F-150 Supercab 4X4. Now it is a pile of junk.
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