According to the   Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, summer and fall are the most dangerous times of the year for drivers, with July and August being the deadliest.

Are you aware of the precautions you should take to ensure a safe drive in an unfamiliar vehicle or location?

Every year, more than 400,000 trucks are involved in crashes. Of those collisions, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), about 20% are the direct result of the commercial vehicle driver following the car in front of them too closely. To break that down, that’s approximately 80,000 crashes that could have been avoided simply by maintaining a proper following distance.

It takes a special set of skills to safely operate a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV). In order to do so, drivers must obtain their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) after being tested on both their skills and knowledge. Testing doesn’t end once a driver has successfully qualified for their license though. CDL truck drivers must adhere to a strict and comprehensive set of regulations to keep themselves and other drivers safe on the road.

When it comes to safety on the road, no one is watching more closely than the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). As an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation, the FMCSA is responsible for regulating the country’s trucking industry and works to reduce the number of crashes that involve large trucks and buses. One way the department carries out that mission is through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, or FMCSR.

As a certified trainer who teaches driving safety to other drivers in your company, you already have the best resource you can get: a Smith System certification and a strong working knowledge of how to deliver classroom and behind-the-wheel training. Smith System has many different educational tools and resources designed specifically to support The Smith5Keys® and assist you in teaching your drivers how to be safer behind the wheel.

Every five seconds, a vehicle crashes on a U.S. roadway, and every 12 minutes, someone dies as a result. Many of these crashes occur during the workday and on company time. It is an expensive problem for employers, who often foot the bill for the related injuries, repairs and premium increases. One of the biggest and most common contributors to roadway crashes is distracted driving. In 2019, 3,142 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver.

We drive them every day, but some highways are safer than others. Whether it’s because of a high speed limit, the volume of cars traveling it, or the condition of the road itself, some highways consistently have more crashes than others.