With these seven steps, you can avoid dangerous skids.
Truck drivers can attend special classes that feature all the latest techniques and
technologies for handling a skidding 18-wheeler.
But let’s be realistic: once a big truck goes into a skid, especially on a slippery or crowded highway, all bets are off. Complex combinations of physical forces, panic and other motorists’ reactions stack up against a happy ending. If you get away with just the truck in a ditch, you’ll be lucky. Multiple-vehicle smashups, closed interstates, long delays, catastrophic damage, serious injuries and even deaths are the most probable consequences.
That’s why professional driving instructors and seasoned truckers agree: the best way to handle a skid on a slippery surface is to avoid skids at all costs in the first place.
Take it slow
“In slippery conditions or poor visibility, we teach students to slow down and don’t drive beyond your headlights,” says Roy Williams, driving instructor at Sandersville Technical College in Sandersville, Ga. “‘Slow down’ covers about everything.”
This common-sense advice seems inescapable, in the same neighborhood as “don’t breathe underwater” or “don’t light your clothes on fire.” But every winter there’s a new crop of inexperienced drivers who somehow just don’t get it, and they mess it up for the rest.
“A lot of people drive beyond their abilities,” says Williams, a former driver. “You get out there and you get a few miles of experience behind you, and you get overconfident.
