Fender benders are NO substitute for an alarm clock

[jmowreader]

Yesterday I ran from 8 at night to 6:30 in the morning getting a load from Kentucky to North Carolina. I had to stop at a truck stop to rest. I parked my truck, got food and went into the sleeper.

At 4:30pm, I was awakened by a large vibration...someone attempting to back into one of the two spots next to mine turned too short and backed into my right fender. Put a hole right above the headlight, and bent the end of my bumper in. And I was just so proud of my truck...90 percent of our International 9400i tractors--the only ones we have with steel bumpers--have one end of the bumper bent in. Mine didn't have that, at least not until yesterday at 4:30pm.

I got the guilty party's information and called it in to our Accidents Hotline. I don't think this was the standard report...

"Hi, I'd like to report an accident."
'Okay, and where were you?'
"At the Pilot truck stop in Mebane, NC."
'And what were you doing at the time of the accident?'
"Sleeping."
'Uhh...you fell asleep behind the wheel and hit something?'
"No, I was asleep on my bunk with the truck parked all day, and someone backed into me. I have him right here in the cab with me (actually, not only did I have him right there, I used HIS phone to call it in, so he'd have the number for our accident hotline in his phone) if you want to talk to him."

And I can understand her confusion: most people who call the accident hotline are not calling because they were the injured party, but because they hit something.

The only strange thing: after the guy hit me he first jumped out of his truck, came over to mine and was all "Oh I hit you, I'm so sorry, let's call your company and turn this in, I fucked up your truck"--VERY admitting of guilt, which was nice. After I got his name, truck number and company number I told him to park and we'd call it in--which he did, but he drove halfway across the truck stop to do it. Maybe he got paranoid about that hole after running into someone while trying to get into it the first time?