I've been producing the news for a couple of months now. All kind of stories air but one stuck out to me in the last few days.
A woman was killed walking across the lot of the Chevron station at Valencia Road and Midvale Park in Tucson. The manner in which she was killed was what was caught my eye.
She was run over by a tow truck that was backing up. She died from her injuries when she was struck.
The story stuck out to me because it reminded me of a class I took a couple of years ago. I had looked into whether being a cab driver would make a good second job for me. I spent a couple of days checking into it including taking a class at the cab company.
I learned that driving a cab isn't the best job for me. A big shout out to anyone who does drive a cab because you're tougher than I am and you're awesome. I got uneasy about the most remote possibility that someone could try to rob me and that ended that.
I did learn from the class I attended about how to safely drive a cab / vehicle. There were lessons that included how far to drive behind someone, the importance of driving at safe speeds and paying close attention to your surroundings and what other people do at intersections. I also learned the least safe driving maneuver there is: backing up.
The class instruction suggested backing up slowly, carefully, and as infrequently as possible is the best bet. The reason is you have the least amount of visibility regardless of what you drive when you go in reverse.
I took that to heart even though I didn't end up working for the cab company. I am super careful when putting a car in reverse. Then a news story popped up that solidified what I was taught.
The tow truck driver wasn't cited, alcohol wasn't a factor, in all likelihood he just didn't see her and probably backed up too fast. (I don't know that for a fact.... its just a guess on my part.)
When you're behind vehicles or if you're going to back one up: Be careful. Backing dat ass, or dat car up... can be more dangerous than it seems.
