As any of the trucking accident lawyers in Nashville, TN can tell you, sharing the road with semi truck drivers can be scary. However, there are some basic rules to follow that will ensure safe driving when you are sharing the road with big semi trucks. Because semi trucks are so much larger and weigh around 10 times more than a regular car does, when an accident occurs where one of the vehicles is a semi truck, the likelihood of there being a fatality is much higher than if it were just two cars involved.
Trucking accident lawyers Nashville, TN know that it takes a semi truck a lot longer to slow down or stop completely than it is going to take a regular car. Therefore, when you cut off a semi truck when you are driving down the road, or even if you think you gave sufficient notice by flicking on your turn signal, you should know that you are putting yourself in extreme danger as that truck behind you is now going to have to try to slow down to match your speed. If they are unable to do so, they may end up running off the road, which may cause them injury or other cars behind them, or they may run right into the back of your vehicle.
Next, you need to be aware that when you are coming up the side of a semi truck, their blind spots are much wider than yours and they really have no way of glancing back to check their blind spots the way that regular drivers in cars do. Because the long trailer that they are hauling behind them and a lack of mirrors that can position to see every possible angle along the load they are hauling, it will be incredibly difficult for a semi truck to see you. Therefore, experienced Trucking accident lawyers in Nashville, TN recommend that if you need to get past a semi truck while driving on the freeway, that you not try to squeeze in behind another car that is already driving up beside one, and also leave yourself an out. In other words, do not try to pass them on the left if it puts you in a position where you cannot move out of the way if the truck starts to merge into your lane as you are driving past.
