Truck accidents are dangerous, and often deadly. For this reason, every responsible driver must educate themselves about proper safety and driving etiquette involving large trucks. Doing so will keep our interstates much safer in 2023, after all. The more aware you are of how to drive around large trucks, the safer you’ll be. If you’re ready to do your part, here are six must-know tips for preventing truck collision accidents in 2023:
Table of Content
1. Give Large Trucks Space
Just as you would with any other vehicle that you’re sharing the road with, you must give large trucks the space they need to drive safely (and to avoid dangerous, often deadly collisions from occurring). It’s actually even more important to provide ample space to large transport trucks, as their destructive power when forced into a dangerous maneuver is infamous. If you’re respectful of the presence of other drivers around you, you’ll make the roadways much safer for everyone in 2023. Large trucks take longer to slow down and turn, after all, so you want to ensure you have ample time to react if they need to make a sudden stop or evasive maneuver.
2. Know When to Contact a Lawyer
Unfortunately, accidents can and do happen (and are not looking as if they’ll go away any time soon). Even when drivers do their absolute best, accidents that lead to major damages, injuries, deaths, and legal charges can rear their ugly heads. When this happens, it’s crucial that you hire someone who can protect your rights, and get you compensation for any damages that you’ve suffered. Quality truck accident lawyers in your area can ensure that you do not put yourself in legal jeopardy, and can handle the ins and outs of your case. Since they’ve seen everything imaginable around truck accident cases before, they’ll know exactly what to do post-accident.
3. Drive Predictably
Few things are as dangerous and infuriating as dealing with erratic drivers (especially if you’re on a large roadway where big trucks are). Whether a small vehicle or a large truck is driving erratically, you’ll need to be prepared to slow down and avoid them to stay safe. On your end, you must drive in a predictable, kind-hearted, and intelligent fashion. If you want to have roadways that are a pleasure to drive on, and which see little-to-no accidents, then you’ll have to put in the personal effort. Only when we all do our best on the roadways will we achieve a concrete paradise, after all. That way, you can make it to your dream beach vacation safely during the upcoming summer months.
4. Watch Out for Wide Turns
As we mentioned earlier, large trucks are much more likely to need ample space to stop and make large turns. In many cases, they require wide turns to get on and off interstates (and busier city streets). If you’re in a crowded urban environment, the complexities of the large truck turning maneuvers become that much more intense. With this in mind, you must remind yourself to give truck drivers the space they need to back up, turn around, or stop. Otherwise, you’ll be putting yourself (as well as the truck driver and other drivers around you) in preventable danger.
5. Pay Attention to Blind Spots
Every driver knows how incredibly frustrating it is when other vehicles hang out in your blind spot, and put you into a tense, dangerous situation. That being said, putting yourself into a large truck’s blind spot is insanely dangerous. Since they are almost certain to be upwards of five times the weight of your vehicle, they can do major damage if they accidentally sideswipe you due to you being in their blind spot. This type of accident can then create a domino effect of other vehicles being forced to make evasive maneuvers, leading to a chaotic and deadly scene as a result.
6. Use Caution if You Need to Pull Over
Lastly, you must stay safe, aware, and legally in check if you need to pull over on the interstate, or any other roadway where large trucks are commonplace. Doing so requires you to get far enough off the shoulder that you are not at risk of being hit by a passing large truck. If you stand right next to the road, the intensity of a truck’s momentum can even pull you under, which will lead to almost certain death. For this reason, you should never ever risk putting yourself in this situation. Simply wait for help to arrive, so you keep yourself and everyone else on the road safe.
Read Next: How to Prevent Common Truck Accidents