The No-Zones

It would be nice if we all had the luxury of zipping away to private islands on our private jets on a whim. Or to have a theater all to ourselves on opening night of the newest and hottest movie of the year. It would even be nice if we had our own private highways to come and go as we pleased as fast or as slow as we wanted. No one to aggravate us causing road rage. No one to box you in when you want to pass. And no one to pull you over if you are traveling at the maximum speed of your bright red Bugatti Veyron Super Sport of 268 mph.

All of these sound wonderful and too good to be true, because they are. Sadly, we are not alone on the roads which means we do have to share, we do have to obey rules for safety reasons, and we do have to remain courteous. A common irritant when it comes to sharing the road is sharing the road with semi trailers including:

• Semis trying to pass other semis causing traffic jams
• Getting stuck behind a semi during road construction
• Not being able to see traffic beyond the semi ahead of you
• Semis being slow to start moving at green lights

Those are just to name a few. As regular vehicle drivers we tend to jump to irritation rather quickly when it comes to sharing the road with semi trucks rather than understanding the responsibilities those drivers have to ensure not only their cargo arrives on a timely manner, but also that it arrives safely. Not to mention the heavy burden of being in charge of 18 tons of weight while surrounded by hundreds of tiny vehicles who most often have road rage when near them.

A huge and common issue we face today is everyone seems to think getting to their destination is more important than everyone else’s schedule. When traffic is bumper to bumper it gets harder for semi truck drivers to see all of the traffic surrounding them. There are multiple blind spots the truck drivers have called “the no-zones”. This means, if you happen to be traveling in any of “the no-zones” and the semi driver feels it is safe to merge into another lane, it is possible they will merge into your lane unaware of your presence in their blind spot. Just to name a few of the no-zones:

• Just behind the left and right mirrors
• Directly behind the truck
• Directly in front of the truck

If you want to know more information about a trucks “no-zones” so that you can better understand your surrounding drivers, their limits, and capabilities, Fisher & Talwar provide an excellent source for you to learn more. Remember to drive safe and keep alert of those surrounding you on the road.