Potential truck drivers in Georgia and across the southern states may benefit from a new course offered by Tennessee Community College that teaches commercial truck driving safety. The course instructor has driven semi trucks and trailers for over a decade and has logged countless hours in the profession. His goal is helping future truck drivers learn the responsibility of driving safely when operating a semi-truck.
The course instructor said that when he trained to drive a truck, schools offered little to no safety courses. In the TCC course, potential drivers enter an intense program that focuses on Department of Transportation regulations and how to navigate and share the road. The course also offers students new technology that allows them to “drive” in the day, night, wind, snow and rain in order to give them experience before driving an actual tractor-trailer. The technology is similar to programs that airline pilots use before flying a plane.
The course offered at TCC is eight weeks long and requires a minimum of 320 hours of work in the classroom. The new program hopes to reduce the number of accidents involving tractor-trailers by teaching students how to share the road and drive safely with other vehicles. Approximately 500,000 trucking accidents occur across the United States each year; 5,000 of these crashes result in fatalities.
Accidents that involve tractor-trailers may cause serious injuries or death. Furthermore, medical bills and lost wages that occur as a result of an accident may place a significant financial strain on a victim. If the trucking accident was caused by a negligent driver, the truck company could be considered liable for damages to the injured parties. If a driver didn’t take the proper safety measures when operating the tractor-trailer and caused an accident, a lawyer may be able to help a victim receive a settlement by filing an accident claim.
