Kids love to make them blast their horns--everyone else would love it if they moved out of the way. They're big, noisy, smelly, slow, and seemingly always hogging the road. Without them, this country would virtually stop. Largely misunderstood on the road, Americans rely on big trucks more than they know.

Driving into a local gas station, consumers won't see cargo jets dropping off gasoline, barges refueling the pumps, or trains restocking the shelves. Eighty-two percent of communities in the United States depend solely on the trucking industry for the delivery of goods. In fact, big rigs are responsible for hauling 84% of goods between the U.S. and Mexico, and 73% of goods between the U.S and Canada.

As the population grows, so does consumer product need, putting more trucks on America's highways and forcing more drivers to share the road. Unfortunately, most people are unaware of how to safely navigate around the highway's largest and deadliest vehicles.

According to a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study, 75% of all truck-related car fatalities are car-initiated. Most Americans are unaware of the rules of truck safety, causing millions of avoidable accidents each year.

Steering clear of the "No Zone"
Unlike passenger vehicles, big rigs don't have rearview mirrors, and drivers don't have the luxury of manually checking their blind spots. These blind spots are so large that, from the driver's perspective, entire cars disappear. Thirty-five percent of all car-initiated fatal accidents occur because the car was traveling in one of the truck's four blind spots.

• Front of the truck.  Due to the height and size of big rigs, drivers cannot see what lies approximately 15-20 feet in front of their vehicles, putting pedestrians at a huge risk. America's Road Team captain and driver of over 1.8 million accident-free miles, Jeff Arnold, suggests pedestrians make eye contact with the driver before crossing in front of their truck. If you cannot catch their eye, it is not safe to cross.
• Left and right sides of the truck. Just beyond the cab on both driver and passenger sides, and extending three lanes of traffic across and the length of the truck, lie the largest and most dangerous blind spots. "If you can't see my face in the mirror, then I can't see you," Arnold explained.
• Rear of the truck. A truck driver's rear blind spot can extend up to 300 feet back, making tailgating a dangerous situation. The metal bumpers that trucks have do not absorb shock well and are very unforgiving to passenger vehicles. Since the truck is as wide as one whole lane of traffic, vehicles directly behind it are unaware of any road conditions ahead and are ill prepared for any incidents occurring further down the highway.

A graphic showing areas around a truck that are invisible to the truck driver.

Sharing the Road Safely

Get your "Ears On"
Focus all your attention on driving and what's going on on the highway. "People do a lot of things behind the wheel, but mostly, they don't pay attention. We get so busy that we forget the most important thing we can do in the car is pay attention to our driving," said Suzanne Stempinski, a trucking-industry journalist with more than 1.5 million safe driving miles under her belt.

Pass Quickly and Safely
"Always pass on the driver's side, where the shortest blind spot is, and don't linger along side the truck. Accelerate, pass quickly, and maintain your speed," Arnold advised. Before returning to your lane, ensure that you can see the entire front of the truck in the rearview mirror. According to the American Trucking Association, in 72% of same-direction sideswipe accidents, the passenger vehicle was the striking vehicle.

Don't Stop Short

Over-the-Road Facts In 89% of fatal head-on passenger vehicle/truck crashes, the passenger vehicle crossed the centerline into the truck's lane. In 88% of opposite direct sideswipe accidents, the passenger vehicle was the striking vehicle. 92.2% of fatigue-related crashes involve drivers of passenger vehicles. Of all fatigue-related fatal crashes, only 3%-6% involve truck drivers. In 2002, the trucking industry hauled 8.9 billion tons of freight. One out of every 14 people in the U.S. works for some part of the trucking industry. The trucking industry uses approximately 44.5 billion gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline annually. Professional truck drivers drove 400 billion miles in 2003, a 146% increase in 25 years. According to studies done by the American Trucking Association

At 55 mph, large trucks, and all their weight, are moving at the rate of 80 feet per second. A fully loaded tractor-trailer weighs an average of 80,000 pounds and takes roughly the length of a football field to safely come to a complete stop. Anticipate the flow of traffic before cutting in front of trucks to reduce the risk of getting rear-ended. Over half of fatal truck crashes involve impacts with the front of a truck. "You can't just swerve out of the way of a situation. When you drive a truck, you don't have much margin for error," Stempinski said.

Know Before You Go
Before each run, big-rig drivers check their equipment for any malfunctions, a practice from which all drivers could benefit. Stempinski suggests that, once a month, passenger-vehicle drivers should walk around their vehicle and check for burned out light bulbs or worn tire treads. In her highway experiences, catching these issues before hitting the road could make the difference between a safe drive and highway accident. 

Driving Concerns
The large-truck fatal crash rate is at an all-time low--1.9 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, largely due to a recent push toward motorist education. Established in 1986 by the American Trucking Association, America's Road Team is an outreach organization designed to spread the word about truck safety to all motorists and pedestrians. Traveling throughout the country from schools to truck stops to radio and television stations, the group strives to promote the trucking industry's commitment to highway safety.

Led by a team of professional truck drivers with expert driving skills and extraordinary safety records, the mission statement of America's Road Team is "Safety is our Driving Concern." "Members of the team have a desire and passion for safety," Arnold said.

There are approximately 2.6 million large tractor-trailer trucks on the road in the United States. So the next time there's a semi "knocking at your back door," practice safe driving by sharing the road with your highway neighbors. Copy that?

Aside from steering clear of a truck's blind spots, there are a variety of different ways to safely share the road. For more safety information, visit www.ATASharetheroad.com and www.sharetheroadsafely.org