The American Trucking Associations recently thanked executives and employees of Mack Trucks Inc. for the company’s continuing support of the ATA’s Share the Road highway safety initiative, including providing a Mack Pinnacle tractor used in the program.
Bill Graves, ATA president and chief executive officer, visited Mack headquarters in Lehigh Valley, Pa., to discuss industry issues with company officials and provide an update on Share the Road’s success in 2008. Mack is the founding sponsor of Share the Road and has provided funding for the effort since 2001. Graves thanked Mack President and CEO Dennis Slagle for the truck and Mack’s ongoing support.
Mack announced Monday, Oct. 6, that it would continue to support the program. “The decision to continue our sponsorship of Share the Road shows the real value Mack places on safety,” Slagle said. “This program is an excellent way to get trucking’s safety message out to large groups of people.”
Share the Road uses a team of professional truck drivers with outstanding safety records to educate the general public how to drive around large trucks, a skill most motorists never have been taught. Through the use of interviews and demonstrations with local and national media, these drivers provide motorists with information regarding safe following distances, potential blind spots and other tips. This information not only opens motorists’ eyes, but also actually changes driver behavior, which has a direct impact on the safety of our roadways.
“Mack has an exemplary commitment to safety, and we thank them for their support in helping us bring our message of safety to the motoring public,” Graves said. “By providing ATA’s Share the Road program with a new Mack Pinnacle tractor, Mack helps our professional drivers demonstrate firsthand what a truck driver can and cannot see on the road. It’s an incredible educational tool that’s working to make our nation’s highways safer.”
In his comments to the Mack executives, Graves said that recent government statistics point to a significant decline in accident rates, injuries and fatalities — indicating that efforts such as Share the Road have a positive effect on highway safety. Traffic fatalities involving tractor-trailers and passenger vehicles are at their lowest levels in 30 years, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The Mack Pinnacle tractor provided earlier this year for use in Share the Road is equipped with numerous advanced safety technologies, including antilock brakes and Mack Roll Stability Advantage by Bendix. Designed for excellent driver visibility, the truck is the second that Mack has provided to ATA for Share the Road in recent years. The new vehicle already has racked up more than 50,000 miles in service of the program.
