I have been a commercial truck driver for 14 years, and there are times when I’d like to shake some sense into people. I hope this article will open eyes.
Be careful that you don’t collide with an 18-wheeler or cause an 18-wheeler to collide with another vehicle. There is not enough awareness on sharing the road with large semi-trucks.
Some basic facts:
1. If you can’t see the driver’s face in the mirror, they cannot see you behind them.
2. The blind spot on an eighteen wheeler is much larger than it is on a car.
3. The best place to travel is not between two trucks. One of the drivers probably does not know you are there.
4. When passing a commercial truck, do it quickly and leave plenty of room before you pull back over.
5. If an eighteen wheeler is traveling at 60 mph, it takes the distance of a football field to come to a complete stop. That’s 360 feet.
6. Learn to exit the highway. If your exit is coming up, stay behind the vehicles that are in front of you. I have seen way too many wrecks and have come close to running over a few vehicles that sweep across two or three lanes of traffic, to get off on an exit.
7. The main reason for a road under construction, to get bottle-necked is the drivers who try to stay in the closed lane for as long as possible before merging. This causes fender-benders, which add to the delay. Merge as soon as possible.
8. Regardless of how well you are driving, if you get a call, you will slow down and swerve. If you have a cell phone in your vehicle, you should have a hands free headset.
I have seen people eating, reading the paper, watching TV, texting, talking face to face with another person, using both hands when talking, swatting at their children from the front seat, and a few other things that I’m not going to mention.
Life is busy, and our minds are full of things that need attended to, but trying to tend to them while we are in our vehicles, is not a good idea.