Motorists get tips on safety with trucks

Afsha Bawany

Wednesday, June 25, 2003 | 8:19 a.m.

The driving test you took to get your license probably never asked if you knew how to drive alongside a truck or a tractor-trailer rig.

The American Trucking Association says maybe you should learn now.

The trade group of professional truck drivers brought the message to Las Vegas Tuesday in advance of the International Trucking Show, which opens Thursday at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The group gathered drivers, law enforcement and state officials to talk about preventing crashes with big rigs.

Most accidents involving big trucks are caused by people driving cars, Nevada Highway Patrol Lt. Kevin Tice said.

"Cars are ignorant as to what's going on with trucks," Tice said.

According to a AAA study released last year, 75 percent of all truck-related car fatalities are caused by car drivers, and 35 percent of those occur in a truck's blind spots.

In Nevada 68 percent of all crashes, not just truck-related ones, were caused by cars in 2001, the latest year for which numbers are available, according to the Nevada Motor Transport Association's website. Large trucks caused only 2 percent, it said.

The biggest problem, said Ina Daley, a professional truck driver for Con-Way Western Express out of Tolleson, Ariz., occurs when cars hover behind or next to the trucks, hiding in the blind spots where truck drivers cannot see them.

In Nevada there is a growing need for drivers to educate themselves on how to share the road with trucks, Tice said.

"Truck traffic is increasing all the time," Tice said.

Nevada Highway Patrol estimates that about 250,000 trucks daily travel into and out of the state on Interstate 15 or Interstate 80 in Northern Nevada, Tice said. But with the increase of trucks on the road comes a competitive and aggressive nature in car drivers trying to speed past trucks, most of which are doing the speed limit, Tice said.

Las Vegas' growth presents a greater challenge, because so much road construction is required just to keep up, William E. Bensmiller, the state director for the U.S Transportation Department, said.

"The expansion stresses every part of the economy and infrastructure," Bensmiller said.

Daly, who has more than 1.5 million accident-free miles on her record and has traveled with the American Trucking Association's education campaign for two years, said crashes can be prevented if car drivers are aware of some basic facts:

Those spots are largest on the both sides of the truck and in the back, but there's also a blind spot of about 10 to 20 feet in front of a large truck.

A truck signaling to change lanes needs an eight-second gap, about 700 feet, to make a safe switch.

"Give us space," Daly said. "Our biggest needs are space, patience and courtesy."

"Back off," Daly said.

"Watch for turn signals," Daly said. "We don't have the visibility cars do,"

Cars add to the problems when they speed up to pass the truck before it can switch, she said.

"Trust us," Daly said.

Daly said she has avoided car fatalities by practicing safe driving and sticking with the speed limit.

"People get annoyed with truck drivers, but we're obeying the speed limit," Daly said. "There are a lot of speeders out there."