Fortunately, for both the company and the insurance carrier, none of the accidents or hits were ever turned in to the insurance carrier.  Fortunately the majority of the accidents were toward the front of the truck which had a substantial bumper and sat up rather high.

With my current vehicles I am quite certain there would be substantial damage were another 'encounter' to take place, even with the 2017 F-150 as its stock front bumper is pretty chincey.

There are often accidents, or whatever you want to call them, that are avoidable, but I've hit a couple of deer and I swear, one of them was unavoidable on my part.  The deer could have easily avoided it, it jumped in front of me from out of nowhere and hit me (sic) within a second of first coming in sight.  I wasn't speeding.

All that said, I generally agree with Offgrid that many, many, "accidents" can be prevented through education, training, good judgement, etc.  I don't mean to exclude myself; I just haven't figured out 25  years later what I could have reasonably done differently with that deer.  It was really like the deer decided to commit suicide and pulled it off without a flaw.

TT

As is pointed out by many of the individuals/entities that are advocating the use of "crash" instead of "accident", words have meaning.  The term "accident" implies to many people that the event was no one's fault.  In many (most?) cases this is simply not true.

That ain't "PC" in my book.  It's more an acknowledgement of reality.

Most "accidents" involve some level of carelessness or negligence in the root cause, but lack an intent to result in some injury.  Some levels of carelessness or negligence can be criminally sanctioned, while on the other extreme of the spectrum, some result only in the obligation to compensate the injured party who suffered a loss due to someone's negligence.  Finally, at the far end of the spectrum are events that one cannot anticipate that result in injuries, such a boulder being shaken loose by an earth quake and rolling down a hill, crushing your rPod as you tow it along the road well within the speed limit.  It was not caused by anyone's carelessness in acting or failing to act.  It is simply a matter of s**t happens.

We all consider the context of the event when we use the term "accident" and are not really confused by it.  It's hardly worth the bother to worry about using another more PC term in its place.

Times they are a changin'...

https://www.sidgilreath.com/learn/car-crash-replace-accident.html

Search "crash vs accident" and you'll find many hits just like this one.

But there are no such things as 'accidents'.

I had a motorcycle once. I got rid of it before I learned the statistic that there are only two kinds of motorcycle drivers--those who have had an accident and those who are going to have an accident.

One of the popular sayings is "There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there aren't any old-bold pilots."

Driving long stretches in the midwest and west is much easier than the east and southeast - less traffic except near cities, and fewer curves. I dont think that 450 is unreasonable under the  right conditions. If you start out early, thats 8 hours driving plus  stops, so maybe 10 hours or so. We  prefer to drive less  and there's always stuff to see. But we're retired and have no schedule - not everyone has that luxury.

The owner of the small fleet of trucks was pissed that his good friend and employee with a LOT more years of experience than I did at the time, jackknifed and put the truck in the ditch, an hour after I had gone thru the same conditions with no trouble at all. At the time it was my first winter season up north as a truck driver. 

My boss said I made his friend 'look bad'....

This same bias affects pilots..."hey that other plane landed OK on the ice with poor braking and a slight tailwind....how bout we try it also?"

Ooops.

Since there is more awareness/training in this area in aviation than other occupations I'd expect that it is very common cause of over the road accidents and other fields as well. 

I'd hope my surgeon was trained in this area if I was on the table. Would that be called takeitoutnomatter whattitis?

Quite a saga.  Wonder how long repairs would take had this happened these days...

Pilots know all about 'getthereitis'...and as a truck driver for about 40 years....I'm familiar with it also. 

In fact, the estimated travel times on (for example) Google Maps are much more accurate since you'll be going much closer to the posted speed limit.

I own a 179. Sounds like you are buying one out of state. Make sure your black tank hanger is secure before you hit the road. Several people on the forum have had the same issue I have had with the hanger failing when traveling. I would bring some wire with me to reinforce the hanger for the trip home, then fix it properly when home.  

Accident? 

It is something not widely known that not all states allow towing at the same speed as when not towing. For the most part, I don't see many RVs pulled over for speeding. However, it is prudent to be aware of, and comply with the towing speed limits just in case something happens.

This isn't a competition and there are no excuses needed.  I just wanted to make the point that there is a wider range of possibilities than those to which one person may limit themselves.

I'm old enough to retire but haven't yet, so I have a limited amount of time for vacations.  It's really hard to get two weeks off at once.  So if I want to go to Cape Breton (from Nashville), and I want to spend as much time as possible in Cape Breton, I feel like I need to put in long days on the road.  For me, it's worth it.  Maybe not wise, but it's how I want to do it.  Same with the Nashville to the Outer Banks trip.  I get as far down the road the first day as I can so that we can get to our campsite in Frisco early the second day.  We usually stop overnight somewhere in or around Wake Forest, coincidentally.

There are certainly other legitimate and more leisurely ways to travel.  Maybe when I retire and can take a trip that can be 2, or 3, or 4 weeks long I'll slow down and smell the roses along the way.  I have done several trips out west and in Mexico and Canada, sans Pod, with no grand destination.  We've followed our noses and had plenty of less than 200 mile days.  I like that kind of trip a lot too.  By "no destination" I mean we don't head out with an end point in mind. where we stay and from which we'll turn around and come back.  There are always a lot of sort of mini-destinations along the way.

TT