Safety Driving Tips When Operating a Truck On a Construction Site
Posted on: 15 June 2016
If you drive trucks or large equipment on construction sites, whether you drive it from the storage location to the site, or operate them on site only, you need to be careful about safety. The following tips will ensure you practice safety precautions without injury to yourself or others.
1. Know the Weather and Traffic Before You Leave
When you driving a truck to a construction site, you need to be vigilant about checking the weather conditions and traffic of where you are headed. Don't just check the weather once for the day, then be on your way. Stay updated by turning the radio to a station with frequent weather or traffic reports, or find an app on your phone that will give you important updates. This is essential so you can avoid areas with a lot of traffic, which increases the risk of accidents, and that you aren't driving in unsafe road conditions. When the weather is bad, and you have no choice but to keep driving, you can at least be warned ahead of time so you are extra careful. This is also important while on the site itself.
2. Be Careful About Your Blind Spots
Many accidents occurring on the highway with big trucks is that you don't always see other vehicles near you. With construction trucks and equipment, it can be very dangerous since they are so large, the blind spots put everyone at risk. In order to avoid these types of collisions, always be aware of your blind spots, and where around your truck smaller vehicles might be out of view. It is not common for other vehicles to know where your major blind spots are, so it is up to you to be careful for you and others on the road. Your biggest blind spots are likely behind your side mirrors, right behind your truck, and in front of the cab on the side of the truck. Try to keep a good distance away from other vehicles and look closely at these areas if you need to change lanes.
3. Use a Truck-Mounted Attenuator
If getting a truck-mounted attenuator for your truck is an option, it is definitely worth using. This is often an option when you drive a large truck down the highway on your way to a work zone, such as if the work is being done on the roads. For this type of truck driving job, you need to have protection in the work zone with an attenuator. This is mounted to the front of your truck and takes most of the impact, so that if you get into a collision with another vehicle, your truck and others involved don't take as much impact. Find these atttenuators at companies like A1 Roadlines Pty. Ltd.
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