If you are like most adults who regularly drive, you tend to ignore the risk of being the road. Despite the possibility of a crash hanging over your head, you may feel quite comfortable at the wheel because you know you have made safety your top priority. In fact, you may even find driving to be a dull part of your day, despite the risk involved.
However, even the safest and most disciplined driver may feel anxious when a massive truck looms over them in an adjacent lane of traffic. Semitrucks make even experienced and competent drivers feel nervous, and with good reason. These massive trucks can cause catastrophic collisions due to minor mistakes at the wheel.
There are a couple of habits that you can embrace to reduce your risk of a commercial vehicle crash.
Carefully avoid a truck’s blind spots
The overall height and length of a commercial truck create big areas around the vehicle that the driver cannot see. Even with those large mirrors they often utilize, truck drivers may not see someone right behind their trailer or in the lanes directly to the side of the trailer.
Learning and habitually avoiding the blind spots around trucks will reduce your chance of getting seriously hurt if a driver doesn’t see you.
Take extra care when passing or merging in front of a truck
The weight of a truck will be multiple times that of a passenger vehicle, which is why it takes them so much longer to come to a complete stop. You need to acknowledge those limitations when you maneuver into traffic in front of a commercial vehicle.
Leaving twice the space that you usually would and ensuring that you are maintaining the same speed or a higher speed than the truck will reduce your chances of a rear-end collision when you pull in front of a commercial vehicle.
Although it can be inconvenient to make adjustments to your speed or routes to avoid driving close to commercial trucks, these two habits can drastically reduce your likelihood of a commercial vehicle wreck that could demolish your vehicle and cause permanent or even fatal injuries for you or the passengers in your vehicle.
