Early on I learned that sharing the road with commercial transport trucks is part of the deal of living in this little piece of paradise we call home. My husband told me the first week I moved here, “Either drive behind or in front of a truck, never beside it.” I always heed his advice because the roads are getting busier and scarier.
October is Be Truck Aware month and the B.C. government wants you to know that 60 people a year are killed in truck and passenger vehicle accidents -- and it’s most often the cars that are at fault.
That’s a frustrating statistic considering the truck infractions I see every day: speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, driving in the wrong lane and tailgating. In my experience, aggressive driving by truck drivers is getting worse, and so my only recourse is to drive more defensively.
One-third of drivers are nervous driving around trucks. I am one of them, so I remove myself from their blind spots, and give them the right of way. A container truck doing 105 km/h takes 66 per cent longer to stop than a passenger car, so don’t merge in front too soon and give them a wide berth to turn.
I’d like to see tougher rules and restrictions for trucks like they have in Germany, which also bans commercial trucks on highways all day Sunday and Saturdays during the summer months.
I’ve always been a wagon person, a Volvo station wagon person to be exact. My husband is in the automotive industry and when he suggested I change from a wagon to an SUV I was reluctant.
I am not a big person and I have to step up into our new used SUV, affectionately known as the pepper pot.
It weighs over 4,500 pounds and I constantly remind myself it’s a powerful machine that can cause a lot of damage if I don’t handle it properly.
My husband feels better having me in a big vehicle, knowing I may have a chance to walk away from an accident.
He’s not alone. SUVs and crossovers are now the most popular cars sold in Canada.
Why not, we feel safe with some metal between us and the other guy, especially when idiots are driving aggressively, running red lights, texting and speeding. Add big trucks to the mix and most of the time it is truly frightening out there.
So slow down, be patient and don’t drive like this stupid guy: I was driving home from Thrifty Foods the other night waiting to turn left onto Beach Grove Road. A young man in a compact car was speeding and taking the turn by the golf course way too fast. His head was down texting. A slight turn too far to the left and he would have slammed into my SUV. I would have survived but he may not.
Ingrid Abbott is a freelance writer and broadcaster who highly recommends Steven Spielberg’s classic film Duel, so you can be scared silly by a transport truck.
