Big rig crash deaths spiked in Sacramento. Here’s how to protect yourself on the freeway

Sacramento and the Central Valley are crisscrossed by some of the busiest trucking routes in the country. Long portions of those highways also serve as commute routes. One unfortunate result, lately, has been a spike in crashes, many resulting in fatalities.

A Sacramento Bee report this week looked into what’s causing those crashes.

To supplement that report, we talked with safety experts, truckers and law enforcement officials for tips for drivers who must share the road with big trucks:

Avoid the truck ‘No Zone’

Commercial trucks have much larger blind spots than cars due to the length of their trucks. Safety officials call these blind spots the “no-zones.” Car drivers should not spend any more time in the blind spot than necessary. How do you know if you’re in the no zone? If you can’t see the truck driver’s face in the truck’s side mirror, that means the driver can’t see you.

Speed up, slow down on the freeway

If you’re in the lane next to a truck, how do you avoid the driver’s blind spot? You can’t. But you can speed up a bit when passing through it.

What if a slower car is ahead of you, blocking your ability to get through the zone quickly? You may be able to anticipate that as you are coming up on the truck. In that case, you may be able to ease off the gas slightly before you get to the trucker’s blind spot, to clear space ahead of you in your lane. That gives you some room to move more quickly through the danger zone.

That said, if you are on the freeway and a large truck is merging from an on-ramp, try to make an early decision about whether you can get ahead of the truck. Otherwise, ease off and let the truck enter ahead of you.

Also, look to the lane on your left. Is there space to slide into that lane if need be?

Space and more space

California Highway Patrol warns drivers not to pull too quickly in front of a truck in its lane. Truck drivers often leave extra space between them and the car in front of them because their vehicles are heavier and take longer to stop if everyone suddenly hits the brakes.

If you need to pull in ahead of a truck, signal your intentions early to give the driver a warning, then slide in with the idea of leaving a buffer between you and the truck.

Don’t forget to swivel

More vehicles have safety technology now, such as lane departure warning systems. But that should not lull you into paying less attention. Keep your head on a swivel and always pay attention to your surroundings.

Think like a truck driver

Barbara Rooney, head of the California Office of Traffic Safety, says car drivers should be “familiar with a big rig’s capabilities and understand how to interact and maneuver around them.”

It’s smart to imagine yourself as the truck driver for a moment.

That person is driving the least maneuverable vehicle on the road. It has the biggest blind spots. It takes longer to stop and it’s harder to merge on and off a freeway because of its size.

It’s not an ‘accident,’ it’s a crash

Almost all crashes are caused by human error. Not by accident.

As roads get crowded, drivers of all vehicles must be even more prepared to react to mistakes other drivers may make.

Leading highway crash causes

A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration study found that most car versus big truck crashes happen when something ahead interrupts the traffic flow and forces vehicles to quickly stop or slow.

Other crash causes include: driver unfamiliarity with the roadway, drivers not being watchful, speed, general inattention, fatigue, illness, mistaken assumptions of what other drivers are doing, and distractions from inside the vehicle.

The DMV says ...

The DMV handbook has a page about how to drive safely near a truck. It’s at this link: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/hdbk/shr_lgtruck_rv