The thought of collision with any vehicle is worrying, but the chances of serious injury or death are at their highest if the vehicle you collide with is an 18-wheeler. Size matters in these situations, and those vehicles are so much bigger than everything else on the road.
Learning a semi-truck’s blind spots, and doing your best to stay out of them, is one of the best precautions you can take to keep yourself safe. Just like other vehicles, they have four blind spots.
The 4 areas to avoid
The four blind spots to avoid when driving around an 18-wheeler include:
- In front of the truck: When you drive a car, you can see almost anything in front of you. It’s different for those driving trucks and they will struggle to see anything close in front.
- To the left of the truck: Avoid being close to the driver’s left-hand mirror. The blind spot there can extend across the lane and back about halfway down the truck.
- To the right of the truck: Truck drivers will struggle to see you if you are close to their right-hand mirror. Note this blind spot is huge, extending across two lanes and extending the full length of the truck.
- Behind the truck: You likely have a rearview mirror in your vehicle. Truck drivers do not, so anything directly behind them is out of their sight for quite some way back.
It’s not always possible to say out of a truck driver’s blind spots, as you may want to pass them or they may want to pass you. If a crash occurs because they did not see you, that does not mean it is your fault. Getting help to understand why the collision occurred can help you claim any compensation you are due.