TRUCKER FIRED FOR HIS HEROICS.Byline: Stacy Brown Daily News Staff Writer It was dark, the road was wet and there was no way Rick Bloom could stop his 80,000-pound truck when he saw the pileup looming looming: see mirage. on the freeway ahead. He made a split-second A Split-Second was a successful synth rock/new beat/EBM band from Belgium. The duo — Mark Ickx and Peter Bonne (under the artist name Chrismar Chayell) — were active from their debut in 1986 until they split up in 1991, when A Split-Second continued as a solo project. decision that made him a hero - and cost him his job. The Palmdale truck driver said Wednesday he was fired for damaging company property, even though he maneuvered into a jackknife jack·knife n. 1. A large clasp knife. 2. Sports A dive in the pike position, in which the diver straightens out to enter the water hands first. v. position to avoid hitting another driver head-on in Saturday's 14-rig pileup in the slippery Newhall Pass Newhall Pass is a mountain pass in Los Angeles County, California, USA. Historically called San Fernando Pass and Fremont Pass, it separates the Santa Susana Mountains from the San Gabriel Mountains. . ``He told me later that he was terrified ter·ri·fy tr.v. ter·ri·fied, ter·ri·fy·ing, ter·ri·fies 1. To fill with terror; make deeply afraid. See Synonyms at frighten. 2. To menace or threaten; intimidate. and that we both would have been killed if I didn't do what I did,'' Bloom said of trucker John Hunt, whose big rig Big Rig was a punk band from the San Francisco Bay Area fronted by singer/songwriter Jesse Michaels. Michaels performed with the group after the break up of his previous project, Operation Ivy, and before forming the band Common Rider. already was a part of the tangle of tractors and trailers that rainy night. ``I was left with two choices that morning,'' he said. ``One was to hit Hunt head-on and kill us both, or jackknife my rig and spare us.'' Hunt said he already had been hit by two other rigs when he looked through his windshield and saw Bloom's truck headed straight at him. ``I'm thinking, `We're dead,' '' Hunt said. ``Then when he did what he did (and jackknifed). I thought he was an angel. I couldn't believe it - I was spared.'' The California Highway Patrol highway patrol n. A state law enforcement organization whose police officers patrol the public highways. said there was little that most vehicles could do once the chain-reaction crash started. ``The first truck really started it all,'' Officer Rick Miler said. ``It was a Rawlings truck that crashed and jackknifed across the two lanes.'' But Bloom's supervisors did not see it that way and fired him because of his part in the pileup that closed the Golden State and Foothill freeways' truck lanes for most of the day. ``It is true that he was terminated because he failed to control his vehicle,'' said Howard Jasper, Bloom's supervisor, before referring additional questions to company headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas, 18th-largest city in the United States[1], and voted one of "America’s Most Livable Communities. . Officials there did not return phone calls. Bloom said he did everything he could to minimize damage to his truck and danger to other motorists. ``They never asked me what happened,'' he said of his employer. ``They called me at 7:30 in the morning and told me I was fired for failing to maintain control. Obviously I had complete control. Otherwise . . .'' David Troy, Hunt's supervisor at Golden State Overnight Trucking in Santa Fe Springs Santa Fe Springs, city (1990 pop. 15,520), Los Angeles co., SW Calif., inc. 1957. The city lies in an oil and natural gas region and has diversified manufacturing. , said he also did not understand Bloom's termination. ``Once it's determined that it's not the fault of our driver, everything is fine,'' Troy said. Bloom said the company sent personnel to the scene to collect boxes of freight he was carrying so that a scheduled delivery to Emory Freight in El Segundo El Segundo (ĕl sēgŭn`dō), industrial city (1990 pop. 15,223), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1917. Its products include navigation and computer systems, aircraft parts, office machines, telephone apparatus, and could be made. ``That's all they cared about,'' Bloom said. ``They didn't care about me. My life could now be messed up forever because of this. I was trying to save someone's life and my own.'' Pablo Orejel, who also jackknifed his rig to avoid others, agreed there was little time to react. ``Everything happened too fast,'' said Orejel, who was driving the 10th truck to emerge from the tunnel. ``It was a matter of seconds, and the road was too wet and slippery.'' Bloom said that if he had it to do over again, he still would have maneuvered his big rig as he did. ``I've run it through my head a dozen times,'' he said. ``I would still do the same thing because both myself and Hunt would probably have been killed if I didn't jackknife the trailer.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO (color) Rick Bloom Fired for trying to save lives |
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