How often have you been humbled by life?

I was humbled last night at work.  It happens from time to time.  As you know I work for a trucking company.  How many people can say they put there life’s on the line when you go to work.  You have your normal answers.  Fire fighters, police military all very respectable jobs that certainly don’t get enough credit.  Last night I took a call about a rollover that involved my company. Rollovers are not that uncommon.  We have them from time to time.  Makes for a long night.  The typical situation is who knows why but we ended up rolling over.  I had two this week.  One was in AZ and our truck hit a car that was abandoned in the middle of the high way.  Spoke to the drivers while a little rattled they were okay.  Makes for a long night we had a trailer on its side with some lettuce on the road.  Well last night we got a call from some lady with the health department about what we wanted to do about the baby formula that was all on the highway.  I said I am sorry miss I have no idea we had an accident. I asked her the condition of our drivers and she said she was not aware.  She was not able to provide much more information and gave me a number to the highway patrol.  I called them and got confirmation that we did indeed have a truck roll over.  So I asked the officer how our drivers were.  That is my first priority I need to know that they are okay.  This officer did not have any information about the condition of our drivers and said that the accident just happened and that he would need to wait for information.  I gave them my number as the contact.  About five min later I got a call from the Highway patrol that was on the scene of the accident.  First question how are my drivers.  Officers answer was I don’t know they were transported to hospitals. This is the moment I got the first set of chills. I called the hospitals and they said they did not have that driver registered.  It took me about 4 calls until I found the hospital that my guys were at.  Due to the condition of the driver they were unable to release any information to me.  At this moment I was humbled.  About 30 min later I got a call from the officer on scene again and turns out that we did lose one of our drivers.  At this point the whole capacity of what actually happens sets in.  We are a training company.  We offer to train drivers in school and then put them out there with experienced drivers after they have been through the school.  I know it’s that this is not the first and unforchantly won't be the last that we have but just very unsettling that a man I may or may not have interacted, may or maynot have passed while I was getting a soda or I may have spoken to him on the phone lost his life out there trying to make a living for his wife. Maybe kids who knows.  You would be surprised the people that have come through here from all walks of life. With the economy taking a shit like it did a lot of people have lost jobs.  We provide a job for a lot of people out there. Like this gentleman who know his history he has a mom or a dad out there somewhere.  He has friends out there for the sake of the situation I hope that some kids have not lost their father.  I think it would just make me more depressed to know. This one really affected me.  I am not here to preach or tell you any of that but I do want all of you to be thankful that most of us don’t have to put our life’s on the line to make a living.  I know that I will come home each day to see my kids, my wife, my brother and sister and my parents and my extended family all these people I love and I will get to enjoy Sundays with them. This man won't.  All he did was try and make a living and provide for himself his wife and whomever else.  He was trying to better himself. He went to bed last night as the truck moved though the night to get the baby formula to the shelves that you and I have all bought before.  And he won't wake up.  He won't call me looking for help. He won't go home again to see his wife.  Truck drivers out there like doctors and teachers and the such don’t get anywhere near enough credit.  But its unforchantly a part of the profession I am in.  No one out there can say that they never got tired while driving or did that head nod.  Please if you are tired pull over or something.  I am very proud of the company I work for.  I am very proud of our safety policy.  If a driver calls me and tells me he is tired what should he do my answer is always shut down and take a nap.   My company is very strict about when we get complaints about fatigue. 

Sorry not my normal post just I just had to get my thoughts out of my head.  I cannot shake the image of this man that is no longer with us.