3 things you need to know when sharing the roads with trucks in the holidays
How often do you hear of horrific accidents involving truck and a passenger car or cars? It’s often enough to know that it is the truck that comes off lightly, not the passenger car or its occupants.
During holiday time we’re likely to be travelling long distance to get to our destinations, so we need to take certain safety measures in to account to avoid these deadly accidents.
Here are three things to remember when sharing the road with trucks according to the Road Safety Foundation:
- Trucks are not equipped with the same energy absorbing bumpers as cars. When a car is hit from behind by a truck the results are too often deadly.
- Stay out of the blind spots: Truck drivers have huge blind spots around the front, back and sides of the truck. Because of a truck’s size, truck drivers must react faster than car drivers in emergency situations. If faced with a potential front-end collision, the truck driver may turn into your lane not knowing you are there.
- Avoid tailgating: Some large trucks are almost as wide as the lane in which you may be driving. If you are driving too close behind one you are prevented from reacting effectively to changing traffic conditions. If you are too close to the rear of a truck and traffic slows down on the highway, or if there is debris in the road you won’t notice it until there is a braking emergency. If there is a problem ahead, your first hint will be the truck’s brake lights. But if you happen to be distracted or tired, you may not be able to react in time. If you hit the rear of a truck you’ll soon learn that trucks are unforgiving. There are no impact-absorbing bumpers, and the metal bumpers they have may not align with yours. So be smart and give yourself plenty of room.