This isn’t an easy story to read. If you operate a truck, this story could be yours. If it could happen to a fleet that runs as straightforward and workaday an operation as H&R Transport, it could happen to anybody.

On August 12, 1998, RCMP Cpl. Graeme Cumming, flashed his brights at Daniel Entz on Hwy. 3 near Colehurst, Alta., about 20 kilometres west of Lethbridge, after responding to a complaint of hay spilling from Entz’s farm truck. The two vehicles slowed and Cumming parked his cruiser in the left lane of traffic — in the passing lane, a precarious spot, but one designed to protect cars from a bale of hay that had tumbled onto the roadway. Nevertheless, Cumming lit the directional arrow on the cruiser to guide traffic to the right, conferred with Entz long enough to decide to issue a traffic ticket, then asked the 22-year-old to step into the car to help complete the paperwork. The boss is gonna be pissed, Entz may have been thinking, when an H&R rig carrying a load of bananas collided with the police car and the hay truck and the whole mess went up in flames.

Not long after a police spokesman had explained that Cumming and Entz were likely killed instantly, word got out that the H&R driver, Darren Buckley, on the job with the company a little less than three months and now recovering from minor injuries, was being charged with two counts of impaired driving causing death, two of criminal negligence causing death, and a charge of driving with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit. Turns out he was also wanted for failure to appear in a B.C. court on an earlier impaired charge, police said.

“That’s when the papers started phoning,” recalls D’Arcy Foder, director of corporate services at Lethbridge-based H&R. “The accident was a shock. We were trying to see about our driver, help with an investigation, keep our employees in the loop, assure our customers that everything was O.K. And during the whole thing, reporters are asking questions like they’re out for blood.

“We’re a good company, with good people,” he says. “This has never happened to us.”

It could happen to anybody.

Whether the query is positive or negative, are you prepared to take that call when a reporter is on the line? Yeah, you think, it’s my company, so I know everything there is to say. But can you tell your story when the fur is flying? Can you say it in three minutes (or 15 seconds with a TV camera in your face)? Can you tell your story even when the reporter doesn’t ask the “right” questions?

Can your No. 2 guy in charge step up if you’re not around?

“The thought scared the hell out of me,” recounts John Cyopeck, chief executive officer of Canpar Transport, a Toronto-area courier. “What if the ‘killer truck’ was one of ours? What would we say? Who would say it? I asked one of my managers and he just kind of shrugged.”

So Cyopeck hired a media-relations consultant and gathered up his operations and human resources people. They drafted an accident response plan for all employees to read and follow, detailing the post-accident and ongoing responsibilities of drivers, supervisors, managers, and top executives in the event of a mishap. They tried to anticipate what reporters would ask and wrote down responses: what the company does; what it stands for; how many drivers it has and how they’re trained; how many trucks it has and how often they’re maintained; how many miles the company logged versus how many accidents it suffered.

“When a reporter calls, we want to be clear and concise when we give information,” Cyopeck says. “We want to convey the sense that the situation is under control.”

When your nerves are a frayed knot, and your corporate image is unraveling like a cheap sweater, a plan provides some sanity and order at a time when you need it most. Here are some guidelines that will help you think through the issues ahead of time.

1. Provide the facts.

If you have particular points you want to get across, and you want to do so in a way that makes a reporter want to recount them, make facts freely available quickly, explains John Mitchell, a Calgary-based crisis-communications consultant. “Reporters operate under tight deadlines, and good information makes their job easier,” he says. “For your part, you’ll reduce the chances of the guy writing that the event is more serious than it is, or of suspecting efforts to cover up or mislead.”

Focus on one or two key messages, communicate those themes early and often, and get the basics across in just a few sentences, Mitchell advises.

Let’s say that H&R driver was one of yours. While drinking and driving is indefensible, reporters should know that your company has a comprehensive drug and alcohol testing program, and that statistics show that serious accidents involving trucks have declined dramatically, and in the vast majority of accidents involving trucks and cars, the truck driver was not at fault.

2. Train, train, train.

Make media relations part of your employee handbook. For instance, what should a driver say when he’s confronted by a reporter after an accident? A snappy “No comment”? Or, “I don’t have time to comment now. I have to go take my drug test”?

Whatever you decide, write it down on a card. Review it at driver meetings. Most people can barely remember their own name at the scene of an accident, let alone a canned response. Even a sincere, “I’m not able to talk to you right now — let me call my company and direct you to someone who can help” is better than nothing.

3. No comment? Really?

Says Mitchell, “When something happens, you get the calls within the first 24 hours. You’re sending investigators in, you’re sending adjusters in, and really, you can’t give much information because you don’t know the facts yet. You don’t want to misinform, you don’t want to be defensive. So here’s what you say: ‘We don’t know yet, so I can’t comment right now. I’ll get back to you on that.’ Take a number and return the call as soon as you can. Now you’ve indicated that you’re doing something about the problem, and you’ll be treated very differently than if you had just said ‘No comment,’ which can sound like you have something to hide.”

4. Talk to your audience.

The reporter is the middleman. Your ultimate goal is to reach the reader or viewer. Don’t use jargon they won’t understand, or may misinterpret. Your definition of a “preventable” accident may be virtually anything where the truck is moving. That’s a lot more strict than what the legal definition may be. Yet if you tell a reporter that an accident was preventable, it may sound like you’re in some way acknowledging blame.

5. Don’t get your hopes up.

Even an informed reporter doesn’t guarantee unbiased coverage. One example comes from a story that appeared a few years ago in the Toronto Star. It was a special section intended to educate motorists about sharing the road with heavy trucks. The story — a good story — carried the headline “Drive To Survive,” with a cartoon showing a snarling, menacing truck and driver towering over a four-wheeler. The reporter didn’t write the headline — reporters never write their own headlines — nor did she contract the illustration. That’s the editor’s doing.

6. Keep the lines open.

An emergency will clog your lines of communication and frustration will heighten the confusion all around. Discuss with your head operator, and with the telephone company, if necessary, how best to assure that the extra load of in and out calls and faxes will be handled without delay.

7. A place for the press. If reporters are arriving at your door, station someone at the building entrance to direct them to a room and, if possible, provide them with information. This gives the press a central place to work — away from any victims and their relatives, who should be segregated in a quiet place with a calm-natured person who can answer questions briefly, as positively as possible, and with discretion.

8. Make opportunities for good press. Look for ways to focus attention on positive aspects of your company that will have a lasting effect. Journalists are generalists: let local news outlets know that you’d be happy to act as an “expert” on trucking or transportation issues. Better yet, consider angles for stories about your company or the industry at large that reporters can develop. Several years ago, Wired — a magazine for high-brow technophiles — published a seven-page feature about how truckload giant Schneider National uses satellites to track its vehicles. Fascinating stuff to the layman, and totally counter to the perception that the trucking business is about as sophisticated as a belt buckle.

9. Be safe.

Finally, if you use trucks, use vehicles that are well maintained, and operate to the best of your ability in compliance with the law. As D’Arcy Foder will tell anyone who’ll listen, an uneventful trip will never make headlines.