‘Safe Driver’ Program Educates Teens to Be Careful Around Trucks

This story appears in the Oct. 26 print edition of Transport Topics.

BETHESDA, Md. — Law enforcement officers, government officials and trucking executives joined together to emphasize the dangers of driving aggressively around large trucks, particularly among younger motorists.

They appeared at a local high school here to help kick off the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s “Operation Safe Driver.” As part of the annual program, which ran Oct. 18-24, there were similar outreach events throughout North America, as well as increased enforcement activities.

“Operation Safe Driver aims to inform all motorists on the risks involved with aggressive driving in and around large trucks and buses and stigmatize aggressive driving behavior by all drivers on the roadways,” said CVSA President Francis “Buzzy” France.

France, a member of the Maryland State Police’s motor carrier division, said the “key to driving around large trucks and buses is to share the road responsibly.”

France was one of several officials who cited the importance of younger drivers to understand the limitations of large commercial vehicles and how they operate.

Rose McMurray, acting head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, urged teens to “watch out for the big rigs and buses. Give them plenty of space so everyone can be safe.”

“In crashes between a large truck and a car . . . 26% of the deaths involved individuals ages 16 to 25,” France said. “This is a trend we need to reverse.”

Brian McLaughlin, senior associate administrator for traffic injury control at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said though efforts to make vehicles and roadways safer are saving lives, “we have not been as successful in addressing . . .  driver behavior.”

“People speed, drink and drive, don’t wear seat belts, drive aggressively and all too often engage in risky driving behaviors,” he said. “Operation Safe Driver is an effort to get at this problem and modify behavior so people are more safety conscious when driving.”

He noted that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people between ages 3 and 34 in the United States.

Luke Rozansky, a senior at Walt Whitman High School, said he initially avoided major highways such as the nearby Capital Beltway.

“Once I finally got the courage to drive on the highway for the first time, my main mission was clear: If there was a truck near me, get out of the way,” he said. “Now, I realize I don’t need to be so afraid; I just need to be cautious.”

As part of Operation Safe Driver, several states are pilot testing a course created by the Arizona Trucking Association and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Karen Rasmussen, president of that state’s truck association, said her group has operated a “Share the Road” program to educate teens about the importance of driving safely around trucks.

“Our program has grown beyond our ability to resource it,” she said.

She said her association fielded about 40 requests in a year from schools and driver education classes to have a Share the Road visit, but could do only about 12.

That interest led to the idea “to do an actual curriculum that we could take to the high schools and to the private driver education classes,” Rasmussen said.

The resulting “Teens & Trucks” program, which roughly 2,000 students in Arizona are going through this month, highlights what Rasmussen said were five key areas: Don’t cut in front of trucks, watch out for blind spots, follow at a safe distance, watch for wide turns and pull off as far as you can if your car experiences a breakdown.

Lt. Jack Hegarty of the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Bureau, said the agency donated time and resources to produce a DVD to accompany the program.

Hegarty said it was the groups’ vision that the program will be made available nationwide within a few years. It already is being tested in Alaska, Indiana and Maryland, he said.