Update on the accident

Police think the man commited suicide by stepping out in front of the truck, not giving the trucker enough time to stop.

Sad to have that on another man's conscious.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Some people have come up with ways so their life
insurance will pay. Not all policies will pay on a
suicide. I have known one that did though. Suicide
is such a selfish act.

I'm nowhere near that desperate, but I always wonder what torment a person must be going through that ending it all is seen as the easy way out.

A cousin of mine drove OTR. On an Illinois 2-lane, a Bronco crossed the centerline. My cousin took to the shoulder to avoid a head-on, but the Bronco cut in front of him at the last second. Even after they found the Bronco driver's suicide note, it still haunted my cousin to his dying day.

That happened to a friend of mine who delivered milk to an insane asylum. As he pulled in for his weekly delivery, a man waiting there timed it so he went under my friends rear wheels. The patient's dad was in the office, had come to take him home. Friend was shaken but took it well. He knew he had no control over the situation.

The sad reality of suicide is somebody has to clean it up and when others are used/involved with the suicide they have to deal with that for the rest of their lives too. I know of a couple cases where immediate family was left the responsibility to clean up after suicides. This involved cleaning houses, cars and trucks etc. Insurance does not always pay, in fact a lot don't, if not then there is even more of a burden on the rest of their family for bills, burial etc.

I know of a couple he was termanlly ill with cancer she had
her identy stolen and lost her job landlord was letting them
stay for free the night before the would have lost there life
insurance they commited suicide they put down tarps to
leave very little clean up. they left a note that money from
the insurance went to the landlord.also we had a guy who
did welding and got welders lung he was miseable all the
time he also was spending a lot of money on medical bills
he ended it .the differnt storys we read should remind us to
maybe stop and talk to people not brush it off as somebody
having a bad day. i have on a couple occasions found
people that it was a good thing somebody was there

Just remembered does any body remember the film
country back in the 80's with jessica lange. That had a scene
in it about a farmer who felt he had no choice

I've dealt with quite a few suicidal people over the years. You want to understand there are people that are making a big cry for help and then there are those are are truly out to die. Some of the later may well take a couple of people with them if they get the chance. Compassion is one thing, getting in over your head is another, so just be careful.

Some guy pulled the suicde by truck deal here a few years ago. Ran his motorcycle into the front of a truck. Decapitated the guy. Had a wackadoodle gal did the suicide by cop thing a couple of years ago in Watertown, too.

I have known two men who have ended it. I think I understand part of what drove them there. One had been in korea, and in some bad stuff as I have been told. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer, treatments were not going well.....so one morning he locked himself in his bedroom and ended it wit a 12 gauge shotgun. That was my grandpas neighbor. I never really thought he was "right", but didn't expect that. He was on the Cincinnati reds farm team for a few years.

The other was a local farmer a few years ago, he had struggled with depression for several years pretty bad. He and his wife over the years had something like 8 miscarriges, before adopting two girls. That had a effect on his wife, and eventually (in my opinion) her state took effect on him. Looking back, he had several "accidents" in the years before that maybe were not so accident. He was found hanging in one of his barns. Very Very sad funeral, he was a GREAT man, friendly as can be. Very kind hearted. So so sad.

I always wonder what made the "day" they actually end it so much worse than the others they actually do it....or is it a mental state, built up that finally something small brakes the camels back and that is all they can take? Guess we may never know.

Sad to see happen, that's for sure

I hope all the jack a$$e$ that automaticly blamed the trucker
and couldn't wait to throw the book at him and were glad he
would get to replay the accident in his mind the rest of his life
read this and see just how wrong they were.

I was repairing the kitchen walls and ceiling for a family about 10 years ago. Had about 8 hours in the job and was nearly finished.
I got a call from their cleaning woman who I knew pretty well from trading referrals.
Don't come in that day.
They found the teen daughter had hanged herself in the laundry room.
I just left the job as it was - tools, ladder, etc, bought new ones.
About 3 years later I get a call from the mother - would I finish the ceiling?
Sure.
They gave me my tools back.
I finished the mud and painted it.
They paid me in full. Never talked about the incident.
She had aged 10 years in the last 3.
Very good family. Very sad affair.

One of our neighbor's did a lot of preparations for the family and then went behind a shed and shot himself with a shotgun.

Several years later, his youngest brother used a shotgun on himself too. His wife couldn't find him when she came home from church, so she had my brother look for him. He was in a machine shed sitting behind the swather.

I used to deliver fuel to several trucking firms. It is more common than you would think. One co had it happen twice on the same bridge in ILL to different drivers and then they had some gal purposely swerve in front of 1 truck in OK. I've lost track of them over the past 25 years but Ill bet it isn't the last time it happened.

Completely agree!
And to add to that, it really hacks me off to hear/read what all of the idiots have to say about who was at fault, what they deserve, etc. when they WERE NOT THERE, and do NOT KNOW all of the circumstances surrounding an incident like this. The poor trucker gest tried, convicted, and sentenced in the court of public opinion. Make that the UNINFORMED court of public opinion...grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

A kid I went to HS with blew his brains out in the basement of his parents house, spattered all over the concrete wall. Messy. He used a shotgun. Closed casket funeral on that one.

I've known a few people that ended their own lives. One was a friend. He was going through a series of problems but none of them seemed insurmountable to his friends. He went to great lengths to hide what he was going through. I was contemplating buying a business. He had been involved with running a similar business. He emailed me a ton of very helpful information about my pending business venture. His last sentence in the email was to let him know if I needed more help. As it turns out he did similar last minute good deeds for several friends.
Early the next morning he called 911 and told them there was a gunshot victim at his address, and told them to come in through the back door. He also told them to send a car to his dad's house, and hung up. He then shot himself with a gun he had stolen from his dad 3 weeks prior.
Looking back we all could see where his life started to unravel about a month prior, but no one had a clue how bad things had gotten for him. The sad reality is he chose a permanent solution for temporary problems.

Often times, it's just been building up for a long time and they pick "the day" at random. When I was in college to become a teacher, they taught us one of the warning signs of a pending suicide was a melancholy kid that suddenly becomes happy. The apparent happiness comes from relief at coming to a decision combined with seeing a way out of their misery.

So they pick a day and spend the meantime putting things in order. Sometimes the day has significance (anniversary of a loss, etc.) but sometimes it's just a day.

My cousin, more like a brother, committed suicide at age 79 few years ago. He'd had major heart problems for years and was facing the rest of his life in a nursing home. It would probably cost his family his farm, so he took that way out. Nothing was ever said about a note or anything, but I know what that farm staying in his family meant to him. It is still a real difficult thing for his wife and kids to deal with.