Top professional truck drivers presented lifesaving highway driving tips to teen motorists Thursday, Oct. 18, as part of the American Trucking Associations’ national Share the Road highway safety tour. Professional truck drivers with millions of accident-free driving miles demonstrated techniques that teens, and all motorists, should utilize when driving near large trucks.
The American Trucking Associations, the Florida Trucking Association and the Share the Road sponsors, Mack Trucks and Michelin North America, joined the elite group of drivers to discuss highway safety with Florida students. The Share the Road stop in Orlando, Fla., comes ahead of the American Trucking Associations’ Annual Membership Meeting in Orlando, set for Saturday, Oct. 20-Tuesday, Oct. 23.
“Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of American teenagers,” says Bill Burton, a professional truck driver from Jevic Transportation. “I’m a parent, so I know what we’re doing here today is very important. 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 Burton, Al Adams (Roadway) and Dennis Day (Con-way Freight). “By being aware of the blind spots around large trucks, all drivers can stay safe on the highway,” Adams says. “Hopefully, the students we talk to today will tell their parents and friends about what they learn so all drivers can share the road safely.”
Following the safety demonstration at Winter Park High School, reporters and photographers were given tractor-trailer rides. 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.
