I Am A Heavy Equipment Operator
“My life has taken one hell of a detour. Four years ago, I was at a bar with my coworker, who was drunk and decided that he wanted to drive his truck home. I ran out to stop him and we got into an argument. Someone in the bar heard and called the police. We were arguing for about 15 minutes and, when the police pulled up, the keys were in the ignition, I was in the driver’s seat and my friend was in the passenger seat. I was charged with impaired driving. The police took my license on the spot and a court date was set for the next year. I kept my job for a while, carpooling with a co-worker but, after six months, it became too difficult to coordinate our different schedules and I lost the job. When the court date came, I couldn’t afford a lawyer. The prosecutor offered me a plea bargain and, at first, I rejected the plea, telling her, ‘I’m not pleading guilty to a crime I didn’t do.’ She told me that the charges from the judge would probably be worse if I plead not guilty and that I would lose my license for three years. I decided to take the plea deal out of fear. I lost my license for one year and, when the year was up, I got a letter from the government stating that when I started driving I would need to have an interlock breath test machine in my vehicle for three years. It’s been four years since I lost my license, I don’t have a vehicle and I’m still struggling to find work. In my line of work, most companies expect you to drive to the work site. I’m trying to find work at a camp where I can stay at the job site and I don’t need to drive back and forth. I’d like to get back to work full-time. I’ve been a heavy equipment operator for 15 years. I never expected to be in a place where I could not get a job.”