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If You Drive a Heavy Vehicle, You May Want to Consider the Following Safety Tips

Reversing Safe

Blind spot is a real problem for all types of vehicles, but it’s more pronounced in heavy vehicles like trucks. Due to its size, the driver may not be able to completely see the area around the vehicle particularly on the front, the sides and the rear. The result is poor visibility, which will then cause collisions and costly damages and accidents. While these blind spots are standards in most heavy vehicles, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything about it. There are a number of safety tips and recommendations that you can follow that can keep you on the safe side. Here are a few driving tips that should be followed when driving a heavy vehicle.

  1. When driving, be aware of the people around your vehicle, especially at busy intersections. Make it a point to observe and anticipate the movement of pedestrians crossing in front of the vehicle.
  2. The same care should be exercised when driving in a busy project site where there are workers around. Pedestrians and workers who are in the project site may not be able to clearly hear the sounding of the horn.
  3. When sharing the road with another vehicle or a cyclist, make sure that you maintain a ‘safe distance’ to avoid collisions. According to experts, you should maintain a space of at least 1 meter in roads that prescribe 50 km/h and 1.5 meter in areas where vehicles are allowed to go more than 50 km/h.
  4. Keep headlights on so you can see and be seen especially at night or during poor weather.
  5. Signal lights should be used when you are about to turn in an intersection.
  6. Make sure that the rear-view mirrors are clear and properly adjusted.
  7. Install a reversing camera system to help boost visibility. Reversing cameras can be partnered with a Mobile Video Digital Recorder (MVDR) which can help capture images or videos.
  8.  Make it a point to manually check the surroundings before attempting to back up or reverse.

These few driving tips and recommendations can help you drive safely on and off the road. And if you are not yet following most of these tips, then it’s never too late to start now.