2 tips for reducing your risk of a big truck crash

Ideally, you want to avoid every kind of collision. However, if you had to choose, you would probably rather have a fender-bender in a parking lot than a highway collision with a big truck. 

Traveling at high speeds near huge semi-trucks can put you at risk. There are two things that you can do to help keep yourself safer when you have to drive close to a big commercial vehicle.

1. Give them as much space as possible to respect their blind spots.

Commercial trucks are hard to maneuver, and they are also so large that the drivers can’t reasonably see all the way around them. 

Even with extra mirrors, the truck driver may not see someone right beside or behind them. The more space you can give commercial trucks in heavy traffic, the less likely you are to wind up in one of their blind spots.

2. Never merge in front of a truck unless you’re traveling faster than it is.

One of the more common ways that people in passenger vehicles cause crashes with commercial trucks is by cutting them off when they merge. 

A commercial truck takes a lot longer to stop or even slow down than a passenger car. If you try to maneuver directly in front of one while traveling at a slightly slower speed, you could be at risk of a very serious rear-end collision. Give a big truck roughly twice as much space as you would give a vehicle the same size as yours before you merge.

Safe driving habits can help you avoid causing a crash with a semi-truck. — but they can’t absolutely prevent them. If you’re involved in a wreck with a truck of any kind, make sure you appropriate legal guidance.