Life-saving highway driving tips were presented last week as part of the American Trucking Associations’ national Share the Road highway safety tour by top professional truck drivers and other safety partners. ATA, the West Virginia Motor Truck Association, the State Police, the Public Service Commission, the Nick J. Rahall II Appalachian Transportation Institute and AAA joined the elite group of drivers Monday, May 7, to discuss highway safety on West Virginia highways.
The stop at Charleston, the State Capitol, demonstrated to drivers how to share the road safely with large trucks. “Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, long-distance car trips cover nearly 600 million miles,” says Clarksburg resident David Bowers, a professional driver for 35 years. “Most automobile drivers were never taught what they can do to avoid an accident with a tractor-trailer.”
Featured at the event were professional truck drivers Clarence Jenkins with UPS Freight, Bowers with Yellow, Al Adams with Roadway and Randy Broderick with FedEx Freight. Those drivers are members of an elite team of million-mile, accident-free truck drivers who deliver the trucking industry’s safety messages across the country.
Following the safety demonstration, reporters, photographers and state legislators were given tractor-trailer rides on Interstate 64. From the truck driver’s perspective, they viewed safe merging and stopping distances and learned up close and personal some of the differences between how cars and large trucks operate on the highways. Today’s demonstration was designed to teach specific skills in order for motorists to drive safely around other automobiles and around trucks and large commercial vehicles.
