WHAT: Almost 80 percent of tractor-trailer crashes and near crashes are caused by someone driving a car. Occupants in the car often do not survive, accounting for four out of every five fatalities in this type of collision. However, most driver’s education courses offer little guidance on how to drive safely around large trucks.

To help address this gap in driver education, this week researchers from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) will teach local students about truck safety through interactive demonstrations at Langley High School in McLean, Virginia. The program, called Sharing the Road, is funded by a $170,628 grant from the National Safety Council’s Road to Zero program.

Visual: After listening to a brief presentation, students rotate through several educational stations around VTTI’s tractor-trailer to learn firsthand about blind spots, proper following distances, and other road sharing tips. They also take turns sitting behind the wheel of the cab so they can see for themselves the lack of visibility a truck driver has compared to other drivers.

WHO: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and students at Langley High School


WHEN:
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Note: the driver safety presentation and truck demonstration will take place outside at the school from 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. The media is invited to join the demo.

WHERE:  Langley High School
6520 Georgetown Pike
McLean, VA  22101

**To RSVP, please contact Shannon Andrea in the media relations office at Virginia Tech at 703-399-9494 or sandrea@vt.edu.

Background: The Sharing the Road program was originally established via a grant from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Over the past two years, VTTI researchers have conducted interactive safety demonstrations at 25 high schools in Virginia, West Virginia, and Delaware and have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from teachers and students.

For more information on “Sharing the Road,” visit https://www.cmvroadsharing.org/. The website provides naturalistic driving video clips, simulator screenshots, scenario descriptions, and other tips to help educate drivers of all ages on proper road-sharing behavior.

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