Driving Safety: Semi-smart(s)

Megan Roth

Contributor

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An uncle, an uncle’s brother and dad, two family friends, a childhood neighbor and my sister’s soon-to-be-father-in-law. These are people I know and can think of off-hand who drive a semi-truck for a living.

And the seven are just a few of the 3.5 million individuals who drive truck professionally in the U.S. And boy oh boy, do they stay busy.

In 2005 alone they drove over 400 billion miles and (in 2006) hauled over 10.5 billion pounds of freight in their 80,000 pound vehicles.

Wow – that’s a lot of driving, a lot of freight and a lot of weight! But just because they’re big, doesn’t mean they’re better. In fact, the massive size of their trucks doesn’t do much in terms of safeguading drivers and passengers when it comes to automobile accidents, which take the lives of approximately 1000 professional truck drivers each year.

That’s just counting the professional drivers; in total, roughly 5,000 people die and an additional 130,000 are injured in semi-related accidents each year.

And the accidents resulting in such injuries and fatalities are often deemed some of the worst on the roads, which is why driving the big-rigs is often referred to as one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. and why truck drivers are often compared to airplane pilots in terms of maintaining the safety of the public (weird as it sounds, other drivers are like their passengers as the ways in which they drive affect the safety of every other car on the road).

It’s true: being a professional truck driver carries a lot of weight (and not just in cargo). Drivers have a responsibility to other drivers and, in order to help them recognize and meet that responsibility, there are many schools and organizations offering safety training programs.

In such programs, drivers learn practical hands-on device, rules of the road and precautionary measures aimed at increasing not only their safety, but also the safety of all drivers.

Unfortunately, however, passing such courses doesn’t guarantee drivers will put the lessons learned in play on the road. Trained or not, professional truck drivers act like all other humans when it comes to road rage (some are easily scorned, others not so much), some fall asleep behind the wheel, some speed and some even play with gadgets/radios that end up serving as a distraction.

As such, your safety as a driver (or passenger in another car) is always at risk. It’s important to pay attention on the roads. Drive defensively. Pay attention to where you’re at on the road and do your best to stay out of their no-zones. Don’t travel alongside a semi for any longer than you have to (in the event that they drift over the center line, the damage to your vehicle is going to be much greater than the damage to theirs).

Be as smart and safe as possible when driving in, around or near a semi but remember, there’s only so much you can do when it comes to safe-guarding your safety in relation to semis as it essentially comes to rest in the hands of those professional drivers.