Teenage Virginia Drivers Should Take a Closer Look at 18-Wheelers

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has recently launched a campaign to make teen drivers aware of the danger posed by large trucks by providing them with an instructor's manual, student workbook, DVD, brochure and one-page handout. This material is well made and instructive for teen and adult drivers alike and can be downloaded or ordered on the CVSA's Teens and Trucks website.

The campaign is aiming to increase teen drivers' knowledge of big-rigs and, in turn, decrease the number of tractor trailer accidents in Virginia and throughout the nation. Its main message is that semi-trucks and passenger cars handle differently; in short, tractor-trailers:

• Weigh up to twenty times the weight of a passenger car, with the corresponding destructive power;
• Need a much longer distance to come to a stop;
• Take wide turns, steering first in the opposite direction before turning so as not to cut corners;
• Have huge blind spots, where your vehicle is invisible.

Keeping a safe distance between your car and the truck is, in a nutshell, one of the most important rules of driving in the vicinity of semis.

• Don't cut off a large truck because you may get crushed if you have to slam the brakes.
• Don't tailgate a large truck because you won't see what's happening in front of you and might end up squeezed beneath the trailer.

Over the past four years, more than 5,000 teens were killed in accidents involving large trucks. If you have young and inexperienced drivers in your family and among your friends, refer them to the CVSA website; you may save a life.

If you have been hurt in a Virginia truck crash, please contact our Warrenton or Culpeper office today. We are happy to offer you a free discussion of your case with one of our skilled, dedicated Virginia semi-truck accident attorneys to see how we can help you secure fair compensation.