Christmas is coming up and gas prices have fallen to an affordable level which means more people will be traveling on America’s highways for the holidays. Unfortunately, there will be even more accidents involving cars and eighteen wheelers with the added traffic.
With thirty eight years experience driving a tractor trailer in a large city I’d like to share a few safety tips with the readers. While some accidents are indeed caused by truck drivers driving entirely to fast for road conditions and tail gating cars, the vast majority are caused by motorists who don’t know how to drive around eighteen wheelers on the highway.
Today’s tractor trailers have fewer gears, air seats, smaller steering wheels with tilt steering, better brakes, cruise control, heated mirrors, air dryers and air conditioning but they are also much bigger and heavier from when I first started driving in 1970 which makes them more dangerous.
When you’re out there intermingling with tractors trailers on the freeway keep in mind that the average weight of a car is 3,000 pounds and the average weight of a large SUV is 5,000. While that seems like a lot it’s actually nothing compared to even an empty tractor trailer with an average weight of 30,000 pounds. A fully loaded rig can weigh up to 80,000 pounds so if you mix it up with one of these massive rigs you’re going to lose.
Even though there can be as many as three mirrors on the right side of a tractor trailer there is still a blind spot where the driver can’t see a car beside them. I can’t begin to tell you how many times a car will drive on my right side for miles and miles. It’s not a wise thing to do. Many things can happen such as a big gust of wind blowing my rig a few feet into your lane or I might have to slam on my brakes and the trailer could possible jack knife wiping out everything in its path. Remember, if you can’t see the driver in his mirror, he can’t see you. Don’t continue to drive beside a big rig. Pass them in a safe manner as quickly as you can.
One of the most dangerous things a motorist can do is suddenly cut in front of a semi as you’re both approaching a red light and slam on the cars brakes. The truck driver has already gauged his stopping distance and began braking. The vehicle in front of him has now cut down the trucks stopping distance enough that the driver has to literally stand on the brakes and pray he can get stopped in time.
If a truck is sitting at a red light in front of you on a hill, stay back about ten feet or so because when he takes his foot off the brake the rig will roll back a few feet before the clutch engages.
The use of turn signals is getting to be a problem in cities across America. For some odd reason, people just don’t like to use them. When I was a kid some of my neighbors drove old cars that didn’t have mechanical turn signals. They had to roll down their window and use hand signals. I can almost understand a person’s reluctance not to use them under those conditions but now that they are located just inches from our finger tips, it ridiculous not to signal when we change lanes or make turns.
Nearly all tractor trailers drivers use their turns signals so when you see one in the left lane with his right signal on be careful. Don’t pull up beside him on the right side because he has to swing to the left to have enough room to make the right turn.
I’ll leave you with one final tip. Get behind a truck when driving through heavy traffic. We can easily see over cars and SUVs and spot any developing traffic problems so we typically get through town quicker.
