A Million Screws, Boy Scout PR and Werner Vacations
A trio of Werner news:
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1. OMAHA, Neb. -- Boy Scouts across the Omaha metro had an early start on Saturday collecting food for the Omaha Food Bank.

The scouts' annual Scouting for Food Drive started a week ago when the troops left bags at homes asking for donated food items.

On Saturday, the boys collected those bags full of food and Werner Enterprises helped out by donating a truck to make the delivery.
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Werner Cares; Werner donated one truck to help feed the hungry! The name WernerScrews no longer reflects Werner's new business practices.

2. Million-Miler Marker
My hat goes off to Mr. Bill Jefferson. He worked ten years for Werner and received--"...a plaque in honor of the feat; Jefferson also received patches, stickers and a gold watch." The biggest accomplishment is, of course, no accidents. A good driver that any respectable (or un-respectable) company would be honored to have.
Here is another interesting statement:
"He and his wife have talked about him finding a new line of work by this fall."
A bright future at Werner's Omaha Office? Or another field of work? Who knows? Unfortunately, not all Werner's employees have a similar experience as Mr. Jefferson.
Has Werner turned over a new leaf? Has WernerScrews been too hard?
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3. April 18, 2007 -- Werner deletes infamous rural route from system

A driver for Werner Enterprises Inc. survived after his rig got stuck in rural Oregon this week. His truck, however, didn’t fare as well.

The driver – Ricky Johnson, 44 – was heading west from Interstate 5 to Brookings, OR, when his tractor-trailer got stuck on winding Bear Camp Road, according to KOBI-TV. The news station reported that the driver’s tires began spinning as he tried to accelerate the truck free, causing the tires to catch fire and eventually destroy the trailer and back of the truck.

Bear Camp Road made national headlines last year when the Kim family became lost and trapped on a nearby unpaved side road. The incident resulted in the death of father and husband James Kim, who left his family in the car to find help after being stranded for nine days.

The road was recently deleted from Werner’s company system, KOBI-TV reported.
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Werner quickly removed this bad route (after two reported incidents); most removals take five years! Thankfully, no one was hurt--only Werner's trailer. Imagine Werner Vacations--where Werner plans a "perfect vacation" for tourists. Mark my words, after Greg or C.L. reads this blog, they will consider this new line of business.

--- WernerScrews 10-4

Life in the Fast Lane
Where did Werner Enterprises find this nut-case? How about a background check? How about a hair follicle check? (According to internet research, meth use is detectable for 90 days using a hair check.) Folks, Werner will never perform a hair check and will continue to hire crackheads (or related substance abusers) because working for Werner will rehabilitate them. Meanwhile, if a Werner drug test finds an a non-user guilty—Werner will not bother with a re-test.

Werner: Let's just find a guy doing meth and hire him.
C.L.: Sounds good to me. As long as he works cheap.
Werner: Okay C.L.

My only question, where does a substance abuser find the money?
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Officers cleared in trucker's 'delirium' death
Coroner cites meth as cause
Thomas Clouse
Staff writer
April 6, 2007
An investigation into the death of a methamphetamine-injecting Texas trucker, who later died during a scuffle with Spokane police last May, has cleared officers of any wrongdoing.
Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker said the May 24 death of 40-year-old Roger D. Hanks was an "excusable homicide."
Hanks died just moments after two Spokane police officers pulled him from the cab of a tractor-trailer, handcuffed him and placed him on his belly.
"It was a felony stop, so (officers) were authorized to use force to take him into custody," Tucker said.
Dr. Marco Ross, of the Spokane County Medical Examiner's Office, determined the cause of death to be "cardiopulmonary arrest associated with a prone restraint position during a methamphetamine-induced excited delirium."
Though the city has begun to train first responders on how to treat patients suffering from "excited delirium," the mainstream medical community has yet to recognize it as a scientifically accepted diagnosis.
In most of the medical studies used in the training, the people exhibiting excited delirium were found to be under the influence of meth or cocaine. About 10 percent had a mental illness.
Medical Examiner Dr. Sally Aiken used a similar diagnosis for the cause of death of Otto Zehm, who died March 20, 2006, after a confrontation two days earlier with Spokane police in which the mentally ill janitor was hogtied, placed on his stomach and had a plastic mask placed over his face.
Local and federal investigations into Zehm's death have not yet been completed. But Tucker said the Hanks investigation landed on his desk about two weeks ago.
Hanks' 32-year-old girlfriend, who was a passenger in the truck, later told investigators that for several days prior he had been injecting himself with large amounts of meth.
Hanks and his girlfriend had stopped at a Broadway Avenue truck stop just off of Interstate 90 in Spokane Valley to rest. Just before 3 a.m. on May 24, Hanks began erratically driving westbound on I-90, police said at the time.
Hanks, who was driving a Peterbilt truck hauling a payload of Gatorade, then took the Hamilton Street exit and entered the Gonzaga University area.
He appeared to be trying to run people down, police said at the time. Witnesses said they heard a woman screaming as the Werner Enterprises truck passed them.
Hanks' girlfriend jumped out of the cab after it backed into a parked van near Sharp Avenue and Columbus Street.
Officers responded at about 3:06 a.m. and began pursuing the truck, which never exceeded 25 mph. During the pursuit, Hanks tried to ram at least one car, police spokesman Cpl. Tom Lee said.
The slow pursuit finally ended near Riverside Avenue and Division Street, but Hanks refused to come out of the cab even after officers sent in a canine and had his girlfriend attempt to coax him out.
---WernerScrews 10-4