*This is a collaborative post.
Family road trips have created some of the best memories over the years. There’s something magical about stuffing the family vehicle with gear, blasting your favorite road music, and getting onto the road. However, as you may have noticed if you’re sharing the highway this summer on trips to national parks or Disneyland, you are sharing the highway with quite a few commercial vehicles. Knowing how to operate your family vehicle around commercial trucks will make for a safer and more pleasant journey for everyone in your family ride.
Trucks just operate differently than the sedans or SUVs that the majority of families are driving. They are longer, they are heavier, and they require a lot more room than you’re used to driving around. An average family car might weigh about 4,000 pounds. Loaded down, an average commercial truck can weigh up to 80,000 pounds. A loaded commercial truck is 20 times heavier than the family sedan! These stark differences change how vehicles like this accelerate, decelerate, and react to hazards.
Know the Blind Spots
Commercial vehicles have significantly larger blind spots than most people realize. These blind spots are not just the typical areas that you would consider looking at before you change lanes in the family vehicle. Commercial trucks have separate blind spots behind them, to the right-hand side, to the left-hand side, and in front of the cab as well! If you can’t see the truck’s mirrors, the truck driver likely can’t see you.
An ordinary truck driver will have a significant blind spot on the right-hand side of the truck that extends across several lanes and many feet behind the truck cab. The blind spot on the left-hand side is smaller but just as significant. The blind spot behind a commercial truck can extend as far as 30 feet, so parents should always avoid driving anywhere around the blind spots of commercial vehicles if possible. As long as you avoid these areas and pass through them quickly or have enough space so the other vehicle can see you, you should be safe around these large rigs.
They Need More Space to Brake
Another thing that most people don’t know is that commercial vehicles need quite a bit of distance compared to average passenger vehicles in order to be able to stop. A loaded commercial truck may need a stopping distance as long as two football fields to be able to completely stop while driving at highway speeds. If you place your family vehicle in a position where the commercial vehicle needs to be able to stop suddenly, you’re placing your family in a potentially dangerous position. Due to the sheer difference in size and weight alone, stopping will likely be challenging for them!
Always make sure that you have enough stopping distance in front of commercial vehicles before you change lanes by either being able to see the entire front end of the commercial vehicle in your rearview mirror or leaving several lengths of the commercial vehicle in front of you if you plan on returning to your lane.
What To Do If An Accident Occurs
Despite everyone’s best efforts to avoid them, accidents involving commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles do occur. As you can imagine, accidents between these two types of vehicles can cause severe injury and damage due to the weight differences between these passenger vehicles and commercial trucks. If there is an accident involving your vehicle and a commercial vehicle or your family is involved in an accident with a commercial truck, the most important thing that parents should do if an accident has occurred is to ensure that all injured parties receive the medical treatment that they need.
Once all medical needs have been addressed, it is worth mentioning that these accidents can be complex. Because they can involve multiple parties (the commercial truck driver, their company, their maintenance company, and even manufacturers if the case relates to manufacturer issues), families that have been injured or that have suffered significant losses should consider discussing any injuries that may have been sustained by their family members with an experienced truck accident attorney. This action is not necessarily a matter of pursuing a case against someone; an attorney can help clarify what options may be available to families.
Practical Points for Families Driving around Commercial Trucks
Children can be easily distracted, so it is essential for parents to keep their eyes on the road when driving around commercial vehicles on our highways.
As you would with any other vehicle on the road, make sure that you keep a proper distance from commercial vehicles (4-6 seconds worth of following distance). This distance will allow you time to react if something happens suddenly. Do not pass commercial trucks on steep downgrades where they will begin to gain quite a bit of speed and avoid passing commercial trucks on curves if at all possible. They have a more challenging time making these turns than smaller vehicles do. In addition, it can be hard for any vehicle to stop during adverse weather conditions, so show additional caution around commercial vehicles when road conditions are poor.
If another vehicle on the highway signals that they would like to move in front of you, show them courtesy. Commercial vehicles need the room to move into the lane that they need. Your family can give them a few seconds of patience; it may just save your family from some uncomfortable situations on our highways.
Perspective on Driving Around Heavy-Duty Trucks
Sharing our highways with commercial vehicles does not have to be scary for parents or for kids. The majority of commercial drivers are professionals logging thousands of miles each month on our highways. They know how to share our roads with other vehicles, big and small. If families prepare their kids with this knowledge and make just a few small adjustments to their driving habits, everyone will arrive at their destination safe and sound. After all, family memories are made (and broken) en route—not because of scary moments behind the wheel! A little awareness of these large trucks and the space that they require can make these family trips more pleasant than ever before.
