Virginia truck drivers from across the state are meeting with teen drivers this week in hopes that teaching them to ‘share the road’ with trucks will prevent future accidents.
The drivers are meeting with students from L.C. Bird and Thomas Dale High schools in Chesterfield, Virginia ahead of the holiday season in an attempt to educate the kids on safe driving.
“There’s gonna be a lot of truck traffic out there delivering our commodities to the stores for Christmas,” Scott Tidwell with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, said. “So we could see an increase in crashes if everyone’s not careful on the roadways.”
From blind spots to stopping capabilities, these drivers and trucking companies want to make sure the kids understand how to safely navigate highways while sharing the road with big rigs – an education which benefits everybody.
“We hope they leave with an understanding of how to stay out of these no-zones,” Tidwell continued to 6 News Richmond.
“Don’t linger around these trucks, how they should properly pass these trucks, which is on the left side of the driver side, and don’t linger next to them. You know, you don’t want to cut trucks off, and we want to make sure they understand that because these 80,000-pound trucks cannot stop like their Driver’s Ed car or their parent’s car or SUV can.”
Many drivers say that unsafe motorists are some of the biggest problems they encounter on the road, and a recent study shows that there are approximately 127 crashes a day between teen drivers and truck drivers.
“I just pray everyday that I don’t get in an accident and keep everyone else around me safe. I’ve been a CDL holder for 12 years now, and have never had an accident. I’ve had some pretty close calls,” said Durby Wilson, truck driver and owner of CB Wilson Transport.
“Give yourselves plenty of time, and be patient,” Wilson said. “That’s the biggest advice I can say is be patient.”