The professional truck drivers of America's Road Team, the million mile, accident free team of trucking industry ambassadors sponsored by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and Volvo Trucks, are heading from their cabs to the class room in a new effort to help a special group of fellow highway users.
Beginning in late August, Road Team Captains will add senior citizens to the groups they counsel on how to safely share the road with large trucks. They'll also offer their seasoned advice for everyday safe driving.
The Road Team's effort is prompted by new national concern over senior drivers following last month's tragedy in Santa Monica, CA where an 86-year old driver drove into a crowd, killing ten people.
"This idea sort of came to a group of us at the same time", said Road Team Captain James Wages of Roadway Express (TN). "We all have mixed feelings about seniors driving alongside us, but at the same time, most of us have parents who still drive and we know how important that freedom is to them."
"We don't make the laws on the age people should have to give up their license. It's not our role to do that," said Mike Nardone, a Connecticut-based FedEx Ground driver and Road Team Captain. "What we can do, though, is to take our experiences and skills and translate them into some good advice for senior drivers to follow as long as they continue to drive".
According to federal highway safety officials, there are nearly 20 million licensed drivers aged 70 or older. As a group, they rank very low in aggressive driving acts, such as speeding, following too closely, or drunk driving. But they rank higher in accidents involving comprehension and reaction time, such as seeing and obeying traffic signs, failure to observe rights-of-way, and crashes when backing up.
The Road Team Captains feel that safe driving sessions with senior groups, especially with their personal touch, will make a difference for many of them.
"When I'm on the road", said Road-teamer Garland Woods of ABF Freight Systems (OK), "I have a plan on what to do and where to go if there is a sudden problem. This is the lesson I want to share with senior drivers; that they have to become more aware for their own safety. They also have to be honest with themselves on what they can and cannot do and change their driving to fit."
