Lifesaving highway driving tips were presented Thursday, Aug. 28, as part of the American Trucking Associations’ national Share the Road highway safety tour by top professional truck drivers. With families preparing to go back to school, Share the Road used the opportunity to educate parents and students about the necessity of following the rules of the road and how to avoid blindspots around large trucks.
Joining the elite group of drivers to discuss highway safety with Maryland motorists were ATA; the Maryland Motor Truck Association; Maryland State Highway Administrator Neil Pedersen; Maryland Motor Vehicle Administrator John Kuo; Maryland State Police; Baltimore County Delegate Jimmy Malone, vice chair of the Environmental Matters Committee and chair of the Transportation Subcommittee; and Share the Road sponsors Mack Trucks and Michelin North America.
Featured at the event were truck drivers Kent Durant (Roadway), Steve Fields (Yellow Transportation), Chris Serviss (Wal-Mart Transportation) and Tony Spero (ABF Freight System). These 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.
“Around the Labor Day Weekend, traffic increases as families head out for one last summer getaway before the kids go back to school,” Serviss says. “Additional cars on the road means 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.”
Following a safety demonstration at a Wal-Mart Supercenter, reporters and photographers were given tractor-trailer rides on Interstate 95. 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 in order for motorists to drive safely around trucks and other automobiles on the highways.
