Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks

Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks aims to reduce commercial motor vehicle related crashes, injuries and fatalities by combining outreach, education and evaluation with targeted enforcement activities to raise awareness among car and truck drivers about safe driving behaviors. In fatal crashes involving large trucks, 88 percent of the time the crash is attributable to driver error by both car and truck drivers. Only 12 percent of the crashes are the result of vehicle defects, road conditions or inclement weather.

Troopers are on the lookout for aggressive driving such as: following too closely, unsafe lane change and speeding violations committed by truck and car drivers as they interact on Florida highways. In addition to targeted enforcement, the campaign uses billboard and radio messaging to increase awareness among car and truck drivers of safe driving behaviors around one another and of the heightened risk of receiving a ticket for a violation. In addition, FHP is collaborating with the Florida Trucking Association to conduct activities at schools and community centers around the state to educate drivers on how to share the road safely with trucks.

Tips on how to safely interact with large trucks:

• Don’t cut off trucks. Total stopping distance is very different for a large truck than a passenger car.
• When you pass a large truck allow a car length for every 10 mph you are traveling. Cutting it close with a truck can cut your life short. Stay out of the truck’s blind spots/No Zones.
• Trucks have very large blind spots. Keep a safe distance. While it is never safe to tailgate any vehicle on the highway, following too close is particularly dangerous around large trucks and buses because the size of these vehicles prevents you from seeing the road ahead and having sufficient time to react to slowing or stopped traffic or another obstacle.
• Only change lanes when you can see both of the truck’s headlights in your rearview mirror.

DefensiveDriving.com has a Florida state traffic school that is approved for point reduction that teaches how to share the road with large trucks.