Many young drivers ages 16 to 24 years old do not recognize that trucks and cars differ significantly in their handling characteristics, and this can lead to truck crashes. For this reason, Teens and Trucks was developed by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) in collaboration with other organizations and support from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

Many motorists falsely assume that truckers can see the road better because they sit twice as high as the driver of a car. However, truckers still have serious blind spots or NO-ZONES which a car can disappear from view. (See diagram). Motorists lingering in the NO-ZONES hamper the trucker’s ability to take evasive action to avoid a dangerous situation. An excellent rule of thumb for motorists sharing the road with a tractor-trailer is, “if you can’t see the truck driver in his side view mirror, he can’t see you.”

Operation Safe Driver is a CVSA (Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance) program aimed at reducing deaths and injuries involving large trucks, buses and cars due to unsafe driver behaviors. The Alliance intends to accomplish this goal by educating both commercial motor vehicle drivers and youth drivers about ways to share the roads safely.

In addition, there is an annual one-week enforcement and educational blitz held, called Operation Safe Driver Week, held every October to spotlight unsafe driving behaviors by both commercial motor vehicle drivers and car drivers in an effort to combat the number of deaths and injuries from crashes.