MoDOT's Big Trucks Campaign Aims to Prevent Semi-Truck / Passenger Vehicle Collisions in Missouri

Beginning today, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) is conducting a month-long awareness campaign connected to driving safely around commercial vehicles. According to MoDOT's official news release regarding the campaign, crashes involving passenger vehicles and big rigs are actually on the decline. However, when these accidents do occur, research has shown that it's most often passenger vehicle drivers (especially young ones) who "unnecessarily endanger themselves due to inattention and reckless driving around big rigs."

If you've never driven a commercial truck, you may not understand that these vehicles are very different from passenger cars and trucks. Because of their sheer size and weight, they take longer to speed up and longer to slow down. Consequently, it's important to allow big trucks extra space, so you don't put yourself - and your passengers - in jeopardy.

Recently, in New York, a woman died after the car she was riding in was smashed into a concrete divider by a tractor-trailer. Police are still investigating, but they say it appears that the fault lies with the car's driver. The passenger vehicle was a livery cab - a non-medallion car service that was ferrying the 26 year-old woman from the Bronx. Some witness reports suggest that the cab may have been backing up when it was struck, and police speculate that the driver may have missed the correct exit and then attempted to backtrack.

The cab driver was taken by ambulance - he suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The driver of the tractor trailer sustained minor injuries, and he was treated at a nearby hospital and released. However, the 26 year-old woman (who was riding in the backseat) was killed. Her body was trapped inside the vehicle for nearly 5 hours: at this point, it is not known whether she died as a result of injuries sustained in the accident, or in the fire that erupted as a result of the collision.