Safely Sharing Highway With Commercial Trucks

Bob Carroll

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The Insurance Insider posts on safer driving around commercial trucks.

Safety tip: Respect commercial trucks

Passenger vehicle operators - not truck drivers - cause approximately 70 percent of all fatal crashes involving a car and commercial truck, according to federal government statistics.

Most accidents are the result of an unsafe driving act, such as following a truck too closely or lingering in its blind spot.

* Beware of blind spots.
* Stay back.
* When passing a truck, do not loiter in the blind spot.
* Pay attention.
* Heed the weather.

The full article contains some informative diagrams and excellent advice. We have more than our share of commercial trucks on the highways of Florida. And, based on my experience representing the injured for over 35 years in our state, when a car meets a truck at high speeds the car loses.

I will not dispute the statistics cited in the article. However, in many car-truck collisions the truck driver's conduct causes, or contributes to, the accident. In addition, the maintenance of the truck or its tires is sometimes less than expected or required.