Top professional truck drivers presented lifesaving highway driving tips to teen motorists in Billings, Mont., this week as part of the American Trucking Associations’ national Share the Road highway safety tour. The American Trucking Associations, the Montana Motor Carriers Association and the Share the Road sponsors, Mack Trucks and Michelin North America, joined the elite group of drivers to discuss highway safety with Montana students.
“Share the Road is one of the best programs that MMCA can present to Montana motorists,” says Barry “Spook” Stang, MMCA executive vice president. “With increasing traffic, it is important to make sure that all drivers are aware of the blind spots around large trucks. This information, and other safety advice, will help everyone to share the roads safely.”
Share the Road returned to Billings to follow up on last year’s tour through Montana, visiting each Billings-area high school to educate new drivers. Featured at the events were professional truck drivers Steve Eckhoff (Hogan Transports) and Clarence Jenkins (UPS Freight). Both 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.
“Motor vehicle crashes are the number-one killer of American teenagers,” Eckhoff says. “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.”
Following the safety demonstrations, 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. The demonstrations were 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, and to arrive safely at their destinations.
