​I  drive truck, a big truck. I pull trailers behind me. Sometimes they are empty and sometimes they are full.

When my trailers are empty, my rig weighs in at 19 and a half tonnes. When it is full, it weighs 63 tonnes. I drive as sensibly as I can, I have a family to go home to and I am sure that many of you do as well. 

Here are a few tips to help us all do just that: 

When you pass a truck and duck back in front, do not slow down. We are moving and usually building speed as we just came up a hill or just got some open room. When you cut in front and drop down to the legal limit right away, you are becoming a speed bump. So, please……leave about 40 or 50 feet between you and me, you and your family will appreciate you making it home.

If your road to turn onto is close ahead, do not pass me and then jam on your brakes. It takes a good distance for me to stop, especially if my trailers are full. If you do cut in front and decide to make a sudden turn, I will do everything in my power not to hit you. I will swerve, I will lock up all my brakes and if it is not too much of a slope, I will even take the ditch and roll my truck. But if I do end up hitting you, I can promise you that only one of us is going home to see our families, and it won’t be you.

When a truck does hit a car from behind, we do incredible damage to our units. First thing that happens is we climb your vehicle and rip out our front axle, we land on top of your car and now you become my steering wheels. You are probably dead at this point, so don’t trouble yourself trying to think of an out. There is none. The only problem is I go where you last pointed your wheels, I hope that was in the direction I wanted to go and not a sharp turn that could possibly flip my truck and hurt other people.

When a truck is slowing down for a light, you may notice a lot of room in front of them, that is not a spot that the nice driver reserved for you. It is a safety buffer for him to slow down without danger. It is also a zone that the driver will use to keep moving so he doesn’t have to burden other drivers with stopping and crawling up a hill or impeding the flow of traffic too much. When you think that it is a spot just for you, think again. If you look in your mirror, you know that thing that hangs in the middle of your windshield, you may notice a bumper that is inches from your car and bouncing up and down because you took the safety zone away and forced the driver of that truck to stop quicker. 

When we are approaching a downhill grade, we do slow down. Especially in areas where some great politician decided that he did not like the sound of engine brakes. Yes, they can be loud. Yes, they can be annoying. But, when you see a big truck coming down a hill and he is having trouble slowing down and you see a busload of kids at the bottom of that hill, then the noise of the engine brake is something you should want to be hearing at that moment. 

So, when we go downhill real slow into a town or city, it is not to annoy you or create a line up of pissed off drivers, it is for the kids at the bottom or your wife taking the dog for a walk. It is for safety. We would like to go down the hills and stop in 50 feet while talking on the phone, but we can’t. We plan every stop and every start to the best of our abilities to keep you and us safe.

I am not saying that all truck drivers are safe drivers, God knows that is far from the truth, and I am not saying that everyone driving a car is a bad driver, but they do exist. I am saying that we get into such routine every day that we sometimes forget that the laws of physics still apply to vehicles in motion. The bigger the vehicle, the longer it takes to stop. I hope I never have to look at a person and know that I was involved in the death of their loved one. I never want to see the face of a child that just lost his mommy or daddy to the crushing weight of my truck. I don’t want your death on my conscience. 

I want you and me to go home to our families. Please, use some common sense. Look at the vehicle you are passing and give them room to keep you and others safe. Please