The holiday season is here, and with it comes a significant increase in the presence of delivery trucks on California’s roadways. These drivers, while trained to maneuver their vehicles in a safe fashion, are often overworked and under tight deadlines, rendering them susceptible to mistakes that put other motorists like you in danger. If you’re not careful, you could wind up in a serious truck accident that leaves you with serious injuries that can carry enormous lifelong consequences, including limited mobility, chronic pain, psychological trauma and severe financial losses.
As scary as that sounds, there are ways to better protect yourself when you’re out on the road in the Oxnard area. Let’s look at some tips that you can implement to keep you and your loved ones safe this holiday season.
Tips to avoid a serious truck accident
As you drive around this holiday season, you’re bound to confront delivery trucks of all sizes. Each of them poses a threat to you and your safety. So, before you head out, remind yourself of these tips that might help you avoid a devastating truck accident:
- Give plenty of space: The more space you can give a truck, the better. If one of these rigs blows a tire or suddenly changes lanes without signaling, you can be taken by surprise and find yourself enmeshed in a catastrophic wreck. By giving plenty of space, including several seconds of lead time to a truck that you’re following, you provide yourself additional time to react when the unexpected happens. This could make all the difference in avoiding a truck accident.
- Avoid blind spots: Trucks tend to have large blind spots. Although they have mirrors to try to reduce the size of them, these blind spots pose a real threat to other motorists. You should try to avoid them if possible, but if you have to travel through a truck’s blind spot, do so as quickly and as safely as possible.
- Be aware of turns: A lot of delivery truck drivers make wide turns. If you’re not paying attention, they could cut into your lane and hit you. Make sure you notice movements that indicate an upcoming turn, even if the truck doesn’t use its signal, so that you can give the truck plenty of space to avoid a collision. This can include slowing down and maneuvering to one side of their lane.
- Use care when merging: It’s sometimes hard for truck drivers to see motorists who are merging into traffic. If you cut in front of a truck too quickly, you could end up rear-ended. If you merge into a truck’s blind spot and don’t quickly change your positioning on the roadway, then the truck could veer into you. Be sure to provide ample space when merging near a truck and make yourself visible to nearby trucks as quickly as possible.
- Remain calm: Delivery truck drivers make mistakes all the time. Don’t let their errors frazzle you. While it’s understandable to get upset and frustrated, you can’t let your emotions impact your driving. Road rage only causes more problems, increasing the risk that you’ll be involved in an accident.
What if you’ve already been injured in a delivery truck accident?
If you’ve already been injured in a wreck involving a delivery truck, then you need to analyze the facts of your crash to determine if the truck driver was at fault. If it looks like they were, then it may be time to consider legal action in the shape of a personal injury lawsuit.
Hopefully you’ll be able to keep yourself and your loved ones safe this holiday season, but if something goes wrong, remember that you have the ability to act on your legal rights to fight for accountability and compensation.