When it comes to being safe around semitrucks, there’s a little thing called the “no-zone” and you want to avoid being in this zone like the plague. All big vehicles have no-zones that surround them, and when a car enters one of these areas, a collision is much more likely to occur.
No-zones are blind spots, where a motorist’s vehicle completely disappears from the view of a bus or truck driver. Below, we’ll discuss all the different no-zones that surround these big vehicles:
— Side no-zones: On either side of trucks and buses, there are large blind spots. If you’re driving on the left or right side of a big truck, and you can’t see the face of the truck driver in his or her side-view mirrors, then the truck driver probably can’t see you either. In the event that the truck driver has to take evasive action toward the side where you’re invisibly present, you could end up getting crushed.
— Rear no-zones: Rush-hour traffic can be mind-numbingly boring and frustrating. It’s especially frustrating when you’re being a good driver and not tailgating, but everyone else keeps butting in front of you. Never be tempted to scoot up close to the back of a big truck — even if other impatient drivers are getting in front of you. Directly behind a big truck is one of the blindest no-zones these vehicles have, and if the truck stops suddenly, you could end up in a deadly collision.
— Front no-zones: Believe it or not, truck drivers are so high up in the air, they have limited visibility directly in front of them. If you’re driving, make sure you can see the entire front of the semi truck in your rear view mirror before you change lanes in front of it.
The drivers who are lazy about no-zone avoidance, unfortunately, are the ones who run a higher risk of getting killed. Avoiding a truck accident like this is far more preferable than getting hurt in a crash and needing to pursue financial restitution in court. Indeed, an ounce of prevention is worth a million pounds of cure when it comes to semitruck crashes.
Source: dps.gov.mp, “What is the no zone?,” accessed March 24, 2017