Do you know the expression “18-wheeler?” An 18-wheel truck is a commercial truck that travels around the country, usually bringing goods from one place to another. These are very large, heavy vehicles. If you`re driving on the freeway, or even sometimes on local roads, and you see an 18-wheel truck, you need to know how to behave around it. If you don`t respect this vehicle`s massive size and weight, you can cause a serious accident, and you`re probably the one who will sustain injuries, not the truck driver. We`ll talk about how you can avoid hitting one of these trucks in the following article.
Stay Away Whenever You Can
If you want to avoid having to call an 18-wheeler accident attorney, staying as far away from these trucks as possible is probably the best way to do that. Mostly, these trucks stick to highways. You`ll only see them on local roads if they just picked up a load of goods or dropped one off.
Out on the highway, these trucks should stick to the speed limit. You usually won`t see one go much over the posted speed limit because the driver won`t want to lose control of one of these enormous vehicles.
Also, many commercial trucks come equipped with safety monitoring equipment. That equipment warns the driver if they`re driving too fast.
As a driver who`s around one of these 18-wheelers, you can speed up and pass one or slow down and let it pass you if you see one appear next to you on the highway. If you see several of these trucks on the highway at the same time, do the same thing. If you`re not next to one of these vehicles, then it can`t possibly hit you.
Stay Out of an 18-Wheeler`s Blind Spots
As a driver, you also probably know about blind spots. You need to learn your vehicle`s blind spot and about the concept in general when you test for your driver`s license.
With most cars, you have a blind spot that`s to the driver`s immediate left and over their left shoulder. A vehicle or another object can conceivably appear there, and you might not see it unless you glance over before you change lanes. Checking your blind spot should happen every time you`re going to merge or switch lanes on the highway or on local roads.
18-wheel trucks have bigger blind spots because they`re larger vehicles. An 18-wheeler does have the same blind spot as a car, on the left at about the vehicle`s midpoint. However, an 18-wheeler also has two additional blind spots about which drivers should know.
There is a blind spot right in front of an 18-wheeler and one right behind it as well. Because of this, you`ll want to stay away from those spots whenever you can.
How to Avoid Those Blind Spots
When you see an 18-wheeler, you can avoid its blind spots by speeding up and passing the truck or slowing down so that it can pass you. Maybe you`re in heavy traffic, though, so that`s easier said than done.
If traffic surrounds you and you can`t immediately get away from the commercial truck, try to give it a few car lengths if you`re behind it. That way, you can feel confident the truck driver sees you when they glance in their mirrors.
If you`re in front of an 18-wheeler, and there`s traffic ahead that forces you to stay in that spot, you`ll just have to wait until you get the opportunity to move away by speeding up or changing lanes. You`ll have to hope the truck driver sees you and knows you`re there, even if you`re in their blind spot for a few moments or more.
Many times, truck drivers receive a lot of education and have to go through extensive testing before they can get a commercial license. That license lets them drive an 18-wheeler, but it also indicates they take safety seriously.
If you stay away from large trucks and respect their size, you can probably avoid hitting one. You`ll just have to hope that the driver isn`t sleep-deprived or impaired.
If a truck driver does hit your vehicle, and you are sure they caused the accident, you can contact an attorney who takes these kinds of cases. Many times, you can find lawyers who do exclusively car accidents. That might be the ideal choice if you need to sue a commercial truck driver, their company, or both.