My Dad was driving across the Mojave desert with a load of produce. It was at night on a 2 lane highway. He was approaching a rise in the road. Unbeknownst to him, there were 4 drunk sailors on the other side of the rise on the wrong side of the roadway. It was a head-on hit. The truck went off the road, the right front wheel hit a ditch, the trailer broke free. The trailer hit the cab and flipped over the truck, ripping the cab off of the chassis. The sailors were in a '47 Plymouth sedan and rolled over several times. All four were killed. The only thing left on the chassis was the driver's seat. My Dad walked away with scratches.
That was the only time he was an owner/operator. After that, he became a casual driver until he accumulated enough hours to be hired full time with a big company.