Tips for Driving Safely Around Semi-Trucks

Semi-trucks are tough. They weigh 20 to 30 times more than passenger cars. This makes it harder for them to accelerate, stop, and execute turns.

Around 5,000 people a year are killed in crashes involving large trucks, and the figure has risen substantially since its 2009 low. One reason is that basic safe-driving habits are not being followed — by drivers of every kind of vehicle.

What should you do before you hit the road? What are the important things to remember about driving safely? How can you pass, accelerate, and turn when near a truck?

Answer these questions and you can get to where you need to go without getting into an accident. Here is your quick guide.

Don’t Linger Alongside a Semi-Truck

You cannot avoid trucks in Georgia, and you should not try to. Interstates carry the heaviest truck traffic in the state, but they are also the safest roads per mile travelled — rural two-lane highways and residential streets carry higher fatality rates, not lower ones, and routing yourself through neighbourhoods to dodge freight simply moves the risk onto somebody else’s street. What you can control is how long you spend beside one. Most car-versus-truck crashes happen in the moments a car sits in a truck’s blind spot, cuts in too close after passing, or gets caught between a turning trailer and the kerb. Pass or fall back, but do not travel alongside.

Follow Basic Driving Safety Practices

You’ve heard of many basic practices for driving safety. You should follow all of them at all times, especially when you are near trucks.

Wear a seatbelt that is firm across your chest and waist. Do not remove it while you are on the road. If you need to take off a jacket, pull your car over to do so.

Never speed. Some highways carry a posted minimum speed as well as a maximum — stay above the minimum and below the maximum, even when other drivers are not.

Do not text or hold a phone while driving. Georgia’s Hands-Free Act (O.C.G.A. § 40-6-241) makes it an offence to hold or support a phone with any part of your body while driving. Hands-free technology keeps it legal, but a conversation still takes attention off the road.

It is okay to leave the radio on, but you should avoid changing channels or the volume. Listen to a full-length album or podcast so you aren’t reaching for the controls.

Set your side mirrors wide — angled out until the side of your own car has just disappeared from view — so they cover the space your rear-view mirror does not. Scan all three every few seconds so you always know what is beside and behind you.

Watch for Blind Spots

Your car has two areas that you cannot see with your mirrors. They are to the left and right sides of your vehicle. They start from your doors and project outward, covering triangular spaces in the adjoining lanes.

You should look over your shoulder through your side windows to make sure those spots are clear. This is essential whenever you are making turns.

A truck has even bigger blind spots. A truck has one directly in front of and behind the vehicle. They also have one on each side, with their right-side blind spot covering two lanes.

Never drive in the blind spot of a truck. They cannot see you even if you have headlights and blinkers on. You should move out of the area immediately.

In particular, you should get away from the sides of the truck. Trucks require a lot of space to execute turns. Change lanes whenever possible.

Following a truck brings its own hazard. Trailer beds sit high enough that a car rear-ending one can slide underneath instead of striking bumper to bumper — an underride crash, where the trailer meets the windscreen and the car’s own crash structure never engages. Tyre debris and road spray are the smaller version of the same problem.

Never tailgate a truck. You cannot see round it, its driver may not be able to see you at all, and you need the room to stop.

Adjust Your Speed

Measure your following distance in seconds, not car lengths. Pick a fixed object ahead, and if you reach it less than four seconds after the vehicle in front does, you are too close. Behind a truck, make it more — and add further still in rain, at night, or on a road you don’t know. If a truck is following you, the same arithmetic applies in reverse. A loaded tractor-trailer at highway speed needs roughly twice the distance a car does to stop, so leave yourself space in front rather than braking hard into a gap the truck behind cannot match. If it is close enough to worry you, change lanes and let it go by. Take particular care on long descents. Trucks build speed downhill and their brakes fade under sustained use, which is why Georgia’s mountain routes have runaway-truck ramps. Give a descending truck room and do not cut in front of one.

Signal Your Turns

You should try to give a truck a full lane of space. But it may be necessary to pass to the side or in front of a truck.

Signal early, check that the lane is clear, then pass steadily and without dawdling alongside. Do not move back over until you can see the whole front of the truck in your rear-view mirror — cutting in short leaves you in the one place the driver cannot see and cannot stop for. Never assume a truck driver has seen you. A useful rule of thumb: if you cannot see the driver’s face in their side mirror, they cannot see you either.

If you are passing a truck on the side, pass it to the left. The blindspot there is smaller than on the right. Remain in that lane until you have put the truck well behind you.

Essential Tips for Driving Safely

None of this is complicated. Don’t sit alongside a truck, and don’t sit in the blind spots that run down both its sides, ahead of the cab and behind the trailer. Keep the basics — seat belt on, phone down, mirrors set wide, eyes moving. Leave four seconds of following distance and more in poor conditions, signal early when you pass, and don’t move back across until the whole cab is in your mirror.

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Get a free consultation regarding your truck accident case by calling us at (404) 662-4949 or filling out our online contact form today. Please provide as much detail as possible about your case, and one of our lawyers will get back to you shortly. We look forward to hearing from you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What causes most large-truck crashes?

According to FMCSA crash data, the leading contributing factors are driver fatigue, unfamiliarity with the route, brake problems, speeding, and distraction. Many of these correlate with violations of federal hours-of-service rules — a logbook audit early in the case can reveal those violations.

How long do I have to file a Georgia truck-accident claim?

Two years from the date of the crash under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33 for personal injury. Cargo or property claims have four years under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-32. However, evidence-preservation letters to the carrier should go out within days to prevent logbook and ELD data from being overwritten.

Can I sue both the truck driver and the trucking company?

Yes. Under Georgia respondeat superior law, the trucking company is generally liable for the driver’s on-duty negligence. The carrier also has independent duties to inspect, train, supervise, and route — violations of those duties create direct claims against the company beyond the driver’s actions.

What evidence is unique to truck-accident cases?

Federal regulations from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration require commercial carriers to maintain driver logs, hours-of-service records, electronic logging device (ELD) data, drug and alcohol test results, maintenance records, and post-crash inspection reports. These records have short retention periods and must be preserved by formal demand.