The National Transportation Safety Board has made several recommendations to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urging the federal agency to take more steps to increase tractor-trailer safety, and reduce the risk of truck accidents involving these vehicles.
The recommendations were triggered by a safety study that was conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board in 2013. One of the most important recommendations involves the mitigation of blind spots behind and around the tractor-trailer. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the blind spots around the tractor-trailer can easily cause accidents involving passenger vehicles simply because the truck driver cannot see these vehicles.
Every vehicle has its blind spots. Even your average passenger vehicle driver will have several blind spots in his field of vision, which prevent him from seeing motorcycles or bicycles that are in these areas. However, the blind spots that exist for a truck driver are much larger, and because of the sheer impact that a trucking accident can have, it is important to mitigate these hazards. Additionally, there are a number of factors including location, characteristics of the truck mirrors and windows, and the design of the vehicle that can affect the driver’s ability to identify and locate passenger vehicles around the truck.
The National Transportation Safety Board in its recommendations especially focuses on the blind spots that exist on the right side of the truck, because it interferes with a large section of the truck driver’s field of view, and therefore, very often results in pedestrian, passenger vehicle, and bicycle accidents.
Motorists must educate themselves about the blind spots in a truck driver’s field of vision, and avoid being in the spot for too long when they’re driving around the tractor-trailer.
