No matter how hard you try to avoid commercial trucks, you’ll always find yourself driving in close proximity to these large vehicles. As you know, this holds true both on city streets and highways.
Even if you attempt to share the road with commercial trucks and keep your distance, you could still be part of an accident at some point. Here are five tips you can follow to enhance your safety:
- Don’t drive in a trucker’s blind spot
- Never pass a truck in the right lane
- Leave enough space when changing lanes in front of a truck
- Be extra careful when merging into highway traffic
- Don’t drive between two commercial trucks
These things may not come naturally to you, but practice makes perfect. You should do whatever it takes to follow these safety tips at all times.
Accidents caused by commercial truckers
You can take as many steps as you want to maintain your safety, but you don’t have control over the other people on the road. Truckers cause accidents for a number of reasons, including the following:
- Reckless driving: This includes things such as speeding, illegal lane changes and neglecting to share the road.
- Distracted driving: If a trucker is reading a map, adjusting a GPS system or eating, they may not be paying attention to the road and what’s going on around them.
- Drowsy driving: Too many consecutive hours on the road can result in drowsy driving, which greatly increases the chance of a crash. There are federal laws in place to protect against this, but they aren’t always followed.
- Unrealistic schedules: If a trucking company sets an unrealistic schedule a driver may spend too many consecutive hours on the road and/or speed to make up time.
- Impaired driving: Drinking alcohol, using drugs or taking prescription medication is a big no-no among truckers. Even so, some drivers make this mistake.
If you’re part of a car-truck accident, you need to protect your health and well-being. This starts with checking yourself for injuries and calling 911. From there, receive treatment and follow the advice of your medical team.
You’ll eventually want to report the accident to your insurance company, as they’ll investigate what went wrong. You have legal rights as a driver, and you need to protect them by ensuring that the negligent party is held responsible for causing the crash.
