Here’s a surprising statistic: Half of all fatal car accidents occur after sunset and 75% of car-truck crashes are caused by the driver of the car. So, here are things long-haul truckers wish you knew about driving in the dark, and how to stay safe. This intelligence comes from First magazine:
Sleep can overcome you in seconds. One driver mentioned in the article felt fine one moment. The next, he fell asleep, hit his head on the steering wheel, and crashed. His advice: If you’re tired, get off the road ASAP and take a nap and if you need time to find a safe place to pull over, splash bottled water on your face and sing along with the radio to stay awake.
Another hazard truckers wish you knew: Cars are barely visible when merging at night – especially since headlights are nearly invisible from the side.One trucker watched in horror as a small car merged too early from a highway entrance ramp. Another 18-wheeler never saw him coming, and ran right over the car, killing the driver. The fix: Flash your hazards, or tap your horn when you merge at night and use the entire highway entrance ramp so other motorists have as much time as possible to see you coming.
Another nighttime driving hazard: White line fever - aka highway hypnosis. Even when you’re not tired, the monotony of a dark highway can lull your brain into a trancelike state, where you’re mesmerized by the white lines zipping beneath your headlights. It also means you’re not watching the road, and your reaction time is drastically reduced. The fix: Keep your eyes moving at night. Keep shifting your gaze around the road, and keep checking all your mirrors.
Trucks require an extra cushion of space! A fully-loaded truck can weigh 70 tons – 40 times more than a Mini Cooper – and can take the length of a football field to stop. So, never change lanes in front of a truck until you can see their windshield in your rearview mirror. In fact, it’s hard to estimate traffic speed at night, so all drivers should leave extra room when following another vehicle. The tip: Pick a road sign. Once the headlights of the car in front of you are no longer reflecting off it, start counting. If you pass the sign before the four-second mark, you’re driving too close. You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
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