Federal regulators recruited several powerful allies to help publicize how to safely share the road with trucks and buses to automobile drivers and others.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration calls the program the “Our Roads, Our Safety” campaign. Private sector partners include American Trucking Associations, the American Bus Association and AAA.
The effort is aimed at educating pedestrians, bicyclists, passenger vehicle drivers and commercial motor vehicle drivers about how all of them can share the road safely, FMCSA said.
The campaign is developing a series of safety videos, advertisements, infographics and social media shareable images to spread safety tips and reminders throughout the country.
The first “Our Roads, Our Safety” video covers commercial vehicle blind spots. Coalition partners developed a comprehensive, easy-to-remember animation to provide viewers with a simple explanation of safe and unsafe maneuvers surrounding commercial vehicles.
The animation highlights safe zones around a truck and asks drivers to only pass commercial vehicles on the driver’s side, if possible.
In addition to these tips, parents and teachers can involve children in a Road Safety Art Contest. The contest allows children in kindergarten through sixth grade to use their creativity and talent to help raise awareness of how to stay safe on the roads.
The trucking industry has operated its own Share the Road highway safety program for more than three decades, noted ATA President Chris Spear. “We are excited to expand our partnership with FMCSA and other highway users,” he added.
To learn more, visit www.sharetheroadsafely.gov.
