West Palm Beach, FL – Murray Guari Trial Attorneys, a personal injury and auto and truck accident law firm in West Palm Beach, share some safety tips for motorists sharing the roadway with large trucks.
A fully-loaded large commercial truck can weigh 80,000 pounds and if you are in an accident involving a commercial truck, such as an eighteen-wheeler or other large freight carrier, the results are catastrophic and often fatal. A 2008 report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that 11,441 people were killed in truck accident and 791,000 people were injured in crashes involving some form of a truck.
To reduce your risk of a serious accident, motorists and car drivers should:
- Avoid truck blind spots. Even with mirrors every vehicle has blind spots, especially trucks? areas in which the truck driver cannot see cars in nearby traffic. If you can’t see a truck driver’s mirrors or eyes, he/she can’t see you. If your car is next to a large truck, either drive on past or fall back. If you are passing, try to drive your car on the left side of a large truck, where the blind spot is smaller.
- Use caution when passing a large truck. If you want to pass a big truck, try to pass as quickly as possible and hug the outside part of the lane. Pass on the left side whenever possible. After you pass a large truck, do not cut in front of it. Leave more space between you and the truck. Leaving this extra distance gives the truck driver the time to slow down or stop if something should happen on the roadway.
- Never follow a large truck too closely. If you follow too closely you will not be visible to the trucker, your own visibility to traffic in front of the truck will be severely limited, and it takes greater response time to maneuver around a large vehicle, or to slow and stop, if something happens (wet roads and weather conditions, tire blow out, flying debris, an accident). Try to keep 20 to 25 car lengths between the front of your vehicle and the back of a large truck.
- Give trucks extra room. Maintain a safe distance from the truck. Do not cut a truck off, watch your braking, and move your car into another lane if necessary. A loaded tractor-trailer or semi truck needs as much as 100 yards (length of a football field) to come to a complete stop. Trucks also make wide turns. Truck drivers sometimes need to swing wide to the left in order to safely negotiate a right turn especially in urban areas.
- Never drive distracted or drive aggressively. Do not drive distracted (using cell phones or texting) or drive aggressively around trucks (speeding, running red lights, pulling in front of trucks to quickly). Use patience and be courteous to truck drivers. Truck drivers have the same right to be on the roadway. Allow them to pass, merge onto or exit the highway, backup, make turns and do not cut them off.
Sharing the road with larger vehicles can be dangerous if you are not aware of their limitations. Always practice proper truck safety techniques when driving around big rigs.
The personal injury law firm of Murray Guari Trial Attorneys PL was founded in 2005. The firm is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, at 1525 N. Flagler Drive, Suite 100. The attorneys can be contacted at (561) 366-9099. Additional information about Murray Guari Trial Attorneys PL may be obtained from the firm’s website at www.murrayguari.com.
Contact
Jason Guari, Murray Guari Trial Attorneys PL
(561) 366-9099
jguari@murrayguari.com
Kim Sailer, BARD Marketing/PR
ksailer@bardmarketing.com
