Florida Injury Lawyer Blog
Truck driver training is an important part of the solution when it comes to preventing trucking collisions in Aventura and other Florida communities. Properly trained drivers understand what steps they need to take to drive safely on the roads and since they understand why safety measures are in place they may be more inclined to follow the rules.
Truck driver training begins with the steps needed to get a commercial driving license. Drivers who want to drive commercial trucks must take courses and must pass a rigorous written and driving test first. However, safety experts agree that more can be done to ensure that drivers get adequate training and instructions.
For example, there are a few changes that could be made:
1) Increase the amount of time drivers spend in training.
Some training programs put drivers on the highway in just weeks. In part, this is because students are eager to get started with their new careers and in part because training programs for truckers receive government money, creating an incentive for the programs to process as many students as possible. By making more classes and more training mandatory, future drivers would need to spend more time with experienced instructors learning the basics. This could potentially help them learn how to react in a wider variety of scenarios.
2) Listen to student feedback.
Students should have a say in when they feel confident enough to get on the road. Former students should also have a say as to what they learned that was useful on the road and what skills would have been useful to learn before getting behind the wheel. Actively seeking feedback from commercial drivers can help programs tailor training that addresses the real skills truckers need to learn.
3) Make learning a life-long venture by offering incentives for it.
Training should not end when a truck driver gets a license. Many things can change over a trucker’s career. New technology and new laws affecting everyday driving will likely be passed, and roads will likely change as well over the course of a career. Regular training can help drivers hone their expertise even further and can ensure that drivers are trained to drive in current conditions. Newer drivers, especially, could benefit from additional training. If drivers were offered a financial or other incentive for additional training or if supplemental training were offered free of charge, it might become easier to ensure that drivers sought additional supervised experience and education.
4) Offer a rounded approach to training.
Drivers should learn how to operate a vehicle and avoid collisions but they also need to be taught about federal regulations that could affect them, basic truck repairs and maintenance, and health practices that could help truckers avoid illness. Even stress management could be an important skill to learn. The more truckers learn, the better drivers they can be, especially since so many seemingly external factors can affect driving ability.
Were your traffic accident injuries caused by an undertrained driver? It can be difficult to tell without a thorough investigation. If you have answers about your injuries or accident, contact the attorneys at Flaxman Law Group at any time for a free case consultation.