How Can Drivers Stay Safe Around Commercial Trucks on Texas Highways?

The key to being safe on Texas highways around big trucks and commercial vehicles is really no different than the key to being safe and driving ordinarily. You need to drive defensively at all times around all vehicles, especially these large vehicles. The number one thing is you should never be on your telephone. No person should ever be on their telephone when they’re driving, nor should they engage in any other activity that takes their primary focus away from the operation of the vehicle. Now, specifically with respect to large vehicles, people need to understand that at 80,000 pounds they don’t stop like a car stops. It takes those vehicles a lot longer to stop. They cannot maneuver as agilely as a small car can. You always need a way out, especially in traffic in the big cities and stop and go traffic. We unfortunately, we have a lot of cases where a commercial vehicle or 18 wheeler just hasn’t paid attention. The driver hasn’t paid attention. They’ve rear-ended cars. It stopped for traffic or stop for an accident or something like that, so you need to always have a way out. You need to know where your escape routes are. You need to be able to move to a shoulder or move to a ditch or an empty lane. You’d be aware of that at all times. You need to keep a close lookout behind you, especially rear-end collisions are especially devastating with these vehicles. I mean, the amount of energy that they create in a rear-end collision is, is almost unimaginable and the damages are always terrible. Someone always gets hurt or catastrophically killed, so you need to pay attention to what’s behind. You need to have a way out. You need to give a wide berth to these big vehicles. You don’t want to be tailgating anyone, but you certainly don’t want to be tailgating these big vehicles. You don’t want to allow these vehicles to tailgate you. You need to move over. If you have to exit, you need to give a wide berth these vehicles, but for the most part, it’s, it’s the same defensive driving you do everywhere else. You need to pay attention to what you’re doing at all times, but with a particular out of these large vehicles.