Making the Most of Driving in Your Car

Two ways that truck drivers can reduce their chances of being involved in a road accident

12 March 2018

Greg Sutton

If you drive a truck, here are two steps you can take to reduce your risk of being involved in a road accident.

Watch out for signs of wheel misalignment

If your truck's wheels become misaligned and you fail to notice and address this problem, there is a chance that you will end up being involved in a road collision.

The reason for this is as follows; misaligned wheels can affect your ability to steer your truck. If for example, you are driving on a straight motorway and you loosen your grip on the steering wheel ever so slightly, your truck will not continue to move forward in a straight line but will instead begin to veer off to one side.

If there happens to be another car driving next to your truck when this happens, your truck would almost certainly end up colliding with it. This could result in both you and the other driver sustaining serious injuries.

As such, it is extremely important to watch out for signs that your truck's wheels may be misaligned.

One of the biggest indicators of wheel misalignment is uneven wearing of your truck's tyres; if the tread depths of the tyres on one side of your truck are far lower than the tread depths of the tyres on the other, you should take your vehicle to a mechanic who provides truck wheel alignment services as soon as possible.

Be careful when loading the truck's storage container

If you routinely use your truck to transport large quantities of heavy goods, it is vital to ensure that you load them into the vehicle's storage container in the correct manner. Failing to do this could drastically increase the likelihood of your truck being involved in a road accident.

For example, if you stack a large number of heavy boxes on one side of the container and leave the opposite side of the container empty, you could end up affecting your vehicle's balance.

If during your subsequent road journey, you were to take a sharp turn, the truck could potentially tip over, due to the uneven distribution of the goods in its storage container. This could not only destroy your vehicle but could also crush anyone who happens to be standing or driving next to your truck when it overturns.

Likewise, if you fail to strap down the goods in your truck's storage container before setting off on a road journey, these items may end being thrown around the container each time that you turn a corner or accelerate.

The noise of your goods being thrown around could serve as a distraction which could affect your ability to drive safely.

For instance, if the sound of a fragile object shattering in the back of your truck results in you losing your concentration when you're driving on a busy motorway, you could end up failing to press down on the brakes when the traffic then comes to a standstill. This could lead to you hitting the driver in front of you and causing a pile-up.

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