Lifesaving highway driving tips were presented Friday, Nov. 16, as part of the American Trucking Associations’ national Share the Road highway safety tour by top professional truck drivers and other safety partners. And with families hitting the highway for the Thanksgiving holiday, sharing the road safely took on added significance for the tour stop.
The American Trucking Associations, Virginia Trucking Association, Virginia State Police and the Share the Road sponsors, Mack Trucks and Michelin North America, joined the elite group of drivers in Roanoke, Va., to discuss highway safety with Virginia motorists. The Share the Road stop demonstrated to drivers how to share the road safely with large trucks.
“We all want to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with our families,” says Tony Sifford, a professional truck driver for FedEx Ground. “With additional motorists on the road during the holiday season, safe driving habits become all the more important. That’s why we’re out here today – to educate the public and make us all a little safer.”
Featured at the event were professional truck drivers Skip Goodrich, UPS Freight; Phil Gould, Jevic Transportation; Rich Scholl, Roadway; and Sifford. 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.
“Share the Road allows me as a truck driver to give people lifesaving advice,” Scholl says. “Most automobile drivers were never taught what they can do to avoid an accident with a tractor-trailer. By being aware of the blind spots around trucks, all drivers can more easily avoid crashes. This information, and other safety advice, will help everyone to share the roads safely.”
Following the safety demonstration at the Troutville Motor Carrier Service Center, reporters and photographers were given tractor-trailer rides on Interstate 81. 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. The demonstration was designed to teach specific skills to young motorists in order to drive safely around other automobiles and around trucks and large commercial vehicles on the highways.
