Tracy Morgan gave his first interview since the devastating crash a year ago that injured him and killed his friend James McNair. If you watch the interview you’ll see he’s still struggling, both physically, mentally, and emotionally.
The Walmart truck that hit the limo Morgan and others were in was speeding and the driver may not have had enough sleep. Their limo was hit from behind, much like the crash that killed Dad. Walmart, says Morgan, takes full responsibility and their CEO is meeting with Tracy later this week to apologize in person.
That seemed to please Morgan and his attorney.
Yes Walmart owes Morgan and his family that apology and whatever financial support they’ve agreed to provide. But maybe Morgan doesn’t realize they owe him and all the rest of us even more.
Morgan should be asking them what they’re going to do going forward to make sure crashes like this one don’t happen again. An apology is nice. Working to fix the problem would honor McNair’s memory. Working to fix the problem of tired, distracted, and stressed commercial drivers would make the apology sincere and meaningful.
Morgan is struggling a year after the crash and I don’t have to tell many of you that he’s got a long road ahead of him. So many families are living a similar lives after similar crashes. He says he doesn’t know how he can be funny again. We could all tell him that someday he will laugh unexpectedly and then feel guilty about it. That time will bring back the funny, but no amount of time will bring back his friend.
I hope someday, when he’s ready, he’ll join us at Truck Safety in our fight to make roads safer for everyone, in honor of his friend’s memory.
And I sincerely hope that when he meets with the CEO of Walmart this week he asks what has been done since the crash to make the roads safer, and what their plans are for the future.
Because an apology is not enough.
Change Is Hard 
June 2, 2015 at 10:17 am
It would be nice if safety would become at least as important as profits.
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June 3, 2015 at 5:49 am
Unlikely…but it would be nice.
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June 2, 2015 at 10:46 am
You’re right, Dawn. An apology is not enough. It’s a start, that’s all. Sooo much more needs to be done, as you’re well aware.
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June 3, 2015 at 5:50 am
I believe he’s only getting face time with the CEO because he’s a celebrity. I doubt the CEO would meet with the victim or the family of anyone not news worthy.
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June 2, 2015 at 2:19 pm
I so agree.
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June 3, 2015 at 5:51 am
It’s complicated.
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June 2, 2015 at 3:14 pm
We agree – an apology is not enough – but also – what exactly is enough? Has anyone ever sat down and worked out a precise plan that would really help. Less hours on the road – but how much is less? Making sure drivers are not tired but every driver is different and every condition they drive in is different, there always seems to be so many variables and until a rock solid standard that ALL drivers must by law abide by ….. I don’t know how they can enforce change 😦
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June 3, 2015 at 5:54 am
It’s very complicated. We believe that if commercial drivers were paid by the hour instead of by the mile that a lot of this would be reduced. They are incented by the way they are paid to drive more and faster. But that’s a huge change and one that would be very slow to happen. Though there is some talk about it now in the industry where there never was historically. We also worked on getting the # of hours allowed to drive reduced, but failed to get it reduced from 11 to 10. Ideally we’re fighting to get it reduced to a normal work day, 8, but that also is a long way off. We did get a new rule instituted that made the break time occur over 2 consecutive nights, but that new rule was rescinded in the last appropriations bill, so that it could be studied further, though the rule itself had taken years of study to come to be in the first place.
All we can do at this point is carry on and try to educate people including the drivers themselves.
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June 2, 2015 at 4:34 pm
It’s a start, and I think many people in similar situations won’t get an apology, because their lawyers will advise them not too.
I hope it leads to more as well. At least, him doing the interview brought it back into the ever revolving news feed, so people are reminded again of the issue. Unfortunately, it came out on the same day as Caitlyn (bruce)Jenner!
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June 3, 2015 at 5:58 am
I know. I’m not discounting how an apology will emotionally help Morgan, I can see that it would, we got one from our truck company, face to face, from the head of safety there. It did help. Immensely. But we also got them to tell us what they were working on to make things safer, and 10 years later we went to another informative meeting with them to see how all their talk the year Dad was killed had turned out and what they were still working toward. Emotionally that was beneficial. And I’m sure they saved some lives along the way.
That’s all we ask…that the industry keep working toward safety. That it make decisions based on safety v.s. profit when they have to choose. Our company actually found that they could do things to make driving safer and that it didn’t cost them more, in fact, they had fewer expenses tied around crashes that offset any cost to increase safety.
Safety CAN be profitable.
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