I was talking with friends in the street when we turned to see this lady almost get hit by a truck. My heart stopped as I watched it happening and couldn’t believe my eyes. The first thing I thought was that safety training would have prevented this incident in the first place.
My wife calls me Mr. Safety and I am sure many of my safety and trainer colleagues are probably judged the same. You get used to looking out for unsafe acts on the roadways but even I didn’t see this one coming. As soon as I saw it happening this is the first thing you are taught not to do in any certified truck training school. Here is how this horrible near miss happened.
I was out for my morning workout on a busy two way street. There is 
only one lane in either direction and buses stop to pick people up and let people off on a regular basis. I happened to run into some friends and we began to chat on the sidewalk without really noticing what traffic on the road was doing. It turned out that the traffic on the road had come to stop as a small bus was letting passengers off. Traffic had started to back up quite a bit when a small truck at the back of the line decided to pass. He must have been in a big hurry and without checking his path thoroughly began to drive in the lane for the opposing traffic and speed by the other cars.
As we turned to watch this driver speed by the cars we noticed that there was an older person that had stepped off the bus and was now crossing the road into the direct path of the truck without noticing. We watched in horror as this truck was barreling down directly towards this lady. It was like witnessing a crash and wanting it to stop without having any way of doing so. Cars started honking as the truck nearly missed the woman as she arrived at the other side. I think my heart skipped a beat! The weird part is the look on the lady’s face looked as though she didn’t even realize she had almost been hit by a speeding truck.
We were all relieved that she made it across the street without incident and I remember the first words out of my mouth to my friends were, “The first thing they train you on is to never pass traffic on a roadway like that.” As my friends agreed with the statement I said there is a driver that needs training. I agree that the lady should have looked and checked her path before crossing the road, however the incident wouldn’t have happened at all if the driver had proper training on road driving techniques.
Certified training facilities start their training right from the beginning with the basics. This is done to make sure basic procedures are covered before going into more in-depth topics. Finding a certified school for your training should be the first priority of a solid career.
About the Author
Bruce Outridge has been in the transportation industry for over 30 years. He is an author of the books Driven to Drive and Running By The Mile, and host of The Lead Pedal Podcast. TTSAO also known as the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario has certified member schools in the truck training vocation ensuring quality entry level drivers enter the transportation industry. To learn more about the TTSAO or to find a certified school in your area visit www.ttsao.com