The start of a new workweek approaching is to me is the start of another week driving and sharing the highways and city streets with motorists who show little regard for their personal safety in many cases pertaining to traffic. Major metropolitan cities have experienced tremendous growth and the evidence is clearly seen in the increased volume of traffic.
Unfortunately for the big rigs drivers and automobile drivers there will be more accidents between cars and eighteen-wheelers as a result of this increased traffic.
In some instances, accidents between tractor-trailers and other motorist are unavoidable with the added traffic and congestion most large cities are undergoing, and partly because of the lack of knowledge by the traveling motorist on how to share the road safely with these massive trucks. I got off the road three years ago, now I drive a tractor- trailer locally, mainly in large cities. I aim to share my observations of things that I've seen and the tips that I wish the general public was more aware of that would cut down on the number of accidents.
There will be accidents between the big trucks and other vehicles that are the direct result of the truck driver's lack of professionalism, as they race around city traffic tailgating other cars and trucks in their feeble attempts to hurry and get out of the city. Why? Because they don't like to drive in the increased traffic some drivers end up in an accident.
However, even under these circumstances it is possible that you can avoid being involved in an accident with a tractor-trailer by following the small tips of advice within this article below.
Lack of knowledge because most automobile motorist have never been behind the wheel of a tractor trailer, they would be surprised to know that today's newer tractor-trailers are well equipped as far as their functionality. They are loaded with many of the same features, such as cruise control, that the average car has. The drivers love it, so their desire is to get out of the congested traffic and back on the open road to slap on the cruise control again. These big trucks are bigger and faster than most small car drivers are aware of, which makes them more dangerous.
With their increase in size over the much smaller four wheeler automobile or SUV, which only weighs an average between 4000# to 6000#, the tractor trailer weighs in fully loaded to the max at 80,000# which makes them more difficult to handle. It is true that most of the big 53' trucks have 18 wheels, but there is only one brake drum for each set of wheels to provide the brakes to stop the truck.
The two front wheels, which we call steers, have brake drums.
The next two sets of wheels, which we call the drives, have four drums for actual mechanics of the brakes.
When the truck is attached to a trailer there are four additional drums for actual mechanics of the brakes of that part of the unit, so of the 18 wheels of many tractor and trailer combination only ten wheels actually has a brake assembly.
As we will cover later it takes a little more time to stop a tractor trailer than it does with your normal 4 wheel vehicle because, when you apply the brakes to your auto, the brake line is already charged up with fluid, the big truck on the other hand is charged by air, and thus it has a little slower reaction time.
It is unlikely that with the increase of traffic all accidents between tractor-trailers and other motorist will be eliminated because many factors come into play with every accident. It's important for you to remember that when in motion the tractor-trailer driver tries to leaves enough room between his/her truck and the 4 wheeler in front of their vehicle for safety reasons not because the truck is slow, it's because it takes more time to stop the truck safely. As you drive along side of a tractor-trailer when the truck is coming to a stop avoid making quick lane changes to get in front of the tractor-trailer just because there is an empty space, one reason that space may have been created by the truck driver is for the safety of the vehicle in front of the tractor-trailer.
0 comments:
Post a Comment