Life-saving highway driving tips were presented this week as part of the American Trucking Associations’ national Share the Road highway safety tour by top professional truck drivers. The Georgia High School Semi-Final Basketball Tournament provided the backdrop for the elite million-mile accident-free drivers to share their message of road safety.
According to the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, more than 1,700 lives were lost as a result of traffic crashes in Georgia during 2006, and 31 motorists die each week on Georgia highways. The Share the Road stop in Atlanta demonstrated to drivers how to share the road safely with large trucks.
Featured at the event were professional truck drivers Dennis Day of Con-way Freight and Jerry Avossa of FedEx Freight. “Being from Lawrenceville, I am very happy to help educate the motoring public that I interact with every day,” Day says. “Hopefully, we’ll teach the attendees the importance of passing safely, maintaining a safe speed and keeping a minimum following distance, so we can all get home safely to our families.”
The presentation concludes today, March 7, with specially scheduled “ride-alongs” available. Reporters will be able to view safe merging and stopping distances from the truck driver’s perspective, and learn up close and personal some of the differences between how cars and large trucks operate on the highways.
“Share the Road allows me as a truck driver to give people life-saving advice,” Avossa 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.”
