Hazards
#1 Main reason for accidents in young adults from 16 to 25 : talking on cell phones, eating, reading, putting on make-up, talking with friends behind the wheel. #2 Communication with truck drivers, cars are made with turn signals-- use them! #3 Being impatient, trucks backing acrosss streets & intersections, it's like trying to beat a train, trying to get past them before they back up.Trucks being governed by computer, 75% of trucks are governed under 68 mph, be patient, because that's as fast as that truck can go.#4 gearing up, empty trucks gear up faster than loaded trucks, be aware when the light turns green, that truck might start off fast but it takes forever to get up to speed limit. Keep in mind it takes longer to stop.#5 Bad weather make sure all windows & lights are clean & clear. Please turn on your lights in rain, fog, & snow because without them you are invisible to us in our tire spray. When you see 18 wheelers slowing down, there is a hazard ahead, slow with us or we'll laugh at you when you go in the ditch or get a ticket, for being so inconsiderate..7 Construction zones-- When you come to a construction zone, one or two miles ahead there will be a flashing sign that tells you which lane is closed, please get in that lane & be patient.Because 95% of back ups are because of people try to race to the front, because they are in a hurry, I'm in a hurry too. So don't be upset when you see a bunch of trucks in one lane & one truck in the other lane stopping you from racing to the front. This also prevents accidents because when you cut into traffic in front you start a chain reaction of everybody slamming on their brakes. One last thing #8 town driving-- when you pull up to a stop sign, that stop sign might be sitting back 15' from the intersection or a white line on the street in front of you are their for a reason, that is the least amount of turning space that an 18 wheeler can clear you safely. Professional drivers have a rule-- once you begin your turn, you do not back up the reason is we are now blind to anything behind us because we may back into your friends or family. So please back up or get out of our way as safely as possible. My thoughts on this are in safe driving-- courtesy, patience, common sense, act like the person you love the most is in the other vehicles. Stats---- as of the year 2000, crashes involving drivers 15-20 yrs. old = 32.8 billion, fatality crashes same age group = male 44,281 female 13,726, motorcycles= surviving 4,561 fatality 3,594 total 8,155, alcohol related accidents 26% young males, 13% young females, fatalities involving semi trucks = 3,000 per yr. 98% was not the truck drivers.Driver errors count for more than half of all fatal car-truck crashes each year. More and more cars on the road, mean less room for semi-trucks to drive, and that means more and more accidents. It's easy for us to get behind the wheel and cruise up and down the highway. But it's not so easy when your driving more than 85-thousand pounds of weight going 65 miles per hour. Speeding is the top reason that teen slose sontrol of their vehicles. Teens are most likely to crach at night; their risk of fatal crashes at night is three times as high as in the day. The rick of a fatal crash among teenagers increases with every additional passenger. "A truck going down the road on the interstate highway at 60-65 miles an hour needs six to 700 feet to come to a full stop., we got 65-feet of machinery going down the road at 85-thousand pounds it looks like a railroad train going down the track." Out of five-thousand car-truck accidents, a majority of them are the driver of the car's fault. In fact, accidents between cars and trucks kill five-thousand people every year, and 98 percent of the time, it's the people in the cars who drive.
