Some Misconceptions about Truckers/Sharing the Road with Truckers

Copyright Sandy Long

One of the biggest misconceptions about truckers is that we are unsafe to be around and cause accidents. There are roughly 3.5 million commercial drivers in the US. The statistics are not up yet for 2008, here are the statistics comparing 2006, 2007.

In 2007 there were 4,808 fatalities involving large trucks. 802 of those fatalities were the drivers of the truck; 502 were truck drivers in single vehicle crashes, 300 were truck drivers in multi-vehicle crashes. 3,601 were occupants in other vehicles, 405 were non-occupants (pedestrians and bicyclists). The numbers were slightly higher in 2006; 5,027 total fatalities, 805 were truck drivers with 500 in single vehicle accidents and 305 in multi-vehicle crashes. 3,797 were occupants in other vehicles with 425 being non-occupants. This means there was a decrease in fatalities involving large trucks of 4.4% between 2006 and 2007.

On the other hand, car and light truck (such as pick ups) crashes account for many more fatalities each year, in 2007, there were 28,933 fatalities down 5.7% from 2006. Motorcycle accidents accounted for 5,154 fatalities in 2007 up from 2006 where there were 4,837 fatalities. Alcohol was involved in 12,998 fatalities in 2007 down 3.7% from a total of 13,491 in 2006.

Injuries from traffic crashes provide high numbers. Passenger cars and light trucks (such as pick ups); 2007: 2,491,000, 2006: 2,575,000 (yes, those numbers are millions), against the amount of people injured in traffic crashes involving large trucks: 23,000 for both 2007 and 2006 (this does not differentiate whether it was truck drivers injured or other type vehicle occupants). Motorcycles causing injury again come in with high numbers; 2007: 103,000 against 88,000 in 2006.

Statistics show that in 75% of the accidents involving trucks, the accident was caused by vehicles other than the truck.

A solo driver averages approximately 125,000 miles driven a year. In the studies done, truckers were found to be fatigued 50% less often than the drivers of other vehicles involved in accidents and were extremely rarely found to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs while a significant number of drivers of non commercial vehicles were often found to be under the influence. Truckers are randomly tested for drugs and alcohol throughout their careers and after any accident by federal regulations.

As a driver, one of the biggest things I see that cars and light trucks do around semi trucks is cut them off. Many times a day, a car or light truck will come back in front of me so close that I cannot see their rear tires over the hood of my truck. This causes me, and other truckers, to have to slam on our brakes. It takes roughly a football field length to get a semi truck that is loaded, stopped.

Another dangerous thing that cars and light trucks do is run along next to us in our blind spots. Rule of thumb is: If you cannot see the driver of a semi truck in the semi truck’s mirrors, the driver of the semi cannot see you or your car.

Safe driving tips:

If you are stopped for road construction or any accident or are going significantly slower than the other drivers on a highway, use your flashers. This increases your visibility to other drivers and can prevent you from getting rear ended.

Do not rely on the mirror on your passenger door to show accurate distance from a vehicle you are passing. Because of the distortion of the shape of the mirror on that door, the vehicle you are passing is closer than it looks. Never cut in front of a semi truck…always wait until you can at least clearly see the highway under the truck’s bumper in your center rear view mirror before moving in front of the truck at.

Use your car’s turn signals to signal lane changes or if you are going to exit the highway. Also, if you are slowing down for a turn or for any other reason, tap your brakes so others can see you are slowing down, or use your flashers.

Never tail gate a truck or any other vehicle. There is a myth that by tail gating a truck one can increase their fuel mileage in their cars. This is not so and is very dangerous for one to do. Not only that the trucker cannot see that you are behind them, but if the trucker, for what ever reason has to stop suddenly, you will run under the trailer and kill yourself. This is in addition to that if the truck’s trailer or the truck blows a tire…or even a RV or other type of vehicle blows a tire, you are at risk of being hit by flying rubber or have to take evasive action.

Use your headlights on dark days or inclement weather situations.

Preplan your trip even if it is just going to the store. Make sure that you know where your exits are and get in the appropriate lane BEFORE you get to the exit.

Do not do anything while driving that distracts you from the road. You would not believe how many people in cars we see a day putting on makeup, changing their own clothes or the diapers on their babies, reading papers or books, eating from bowls and plates using forks, having sex, and driving without having both feet on the floor among other things. Yep, we have a bird’s eye view into your vehicle.

When you are coming down an on ramp to a highway or interstate, you should ‘merge’ into traffic. Merge means to adjust your speed accordingly to fit into traffic spaces in traffic lanes. Traffic has the right of way, not merging vehicles from on ramps. You may not be able to see the lane on the other side of the truck in the left lane, there may be a car there prohibiting the truck from moving over for you to enter that lane. Also, many states are instituting lane restrictions for trucks to where we are limited to running in only the two right lanes; it may be illegal for us to move over.

Slow down!!! This is especially important in inclement weather. Leave extra distance so you have longer reaction time if something happens ahead of you. Never speed through construction sites.

One final thing about trucks and truckers; everything, and I mean everything, that you use in any way down to the clothes you wear and the medicine you take comes by truck. This includes your house, your car, your food, the very highway you drive on…even the cash money you spend and the plastic credit cards you use…comes by truck driven by truckers. We truckers are a valuable part of this country’s defense and move military equipment and supplies to keep our troops in action. Without us the country stops.

This does not make us special in any way, but we are professionals doing our jobs safely and productively and do deserve if not respect at least some understanding of the rigors of our jobs and some highway courtesy. Do not fear us or our trucks, we do not want to hurt anyone in doing our jobs, least of all ourselves though we will risk ourselves to avoid hurting you if possible. Working together and understanding how to share the road with each other, we can all make our highways safer and more pleasant to drive on.

Ya’ll be safe out there!

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