Belgrade, Montana Personal Injury Blog

Driving through the state of Montana during the winter months can be an enjoyable experience. With plenty of sights to take in, you'll never be disappointed with the atmosphere around your vehicle.

Of course, your safety is more important than anything else. It's important to pay attention to road and weather conditions, such as strong winds, as it will impact your driving style.

It's hard to spend any amount of time on the road without finding yourself in close proximity to at least one commercial truck. If you're on the interstate, you can expect to see these types of vehicles time after time.

Sharing the road with commercial trucks is easier said than done, as there are many steps you must take to keep yourself safe. Here are three tips you should always keep in mind:

• Never take a risk: You won't always like how a trucker is driving, but that doesn't mean you should take a risk. For example, you may assume that there's nothing wrong with passing a truck in the right lane. However, this is a risk that greatly increases the chance of an accident.
• Leave more space: It doesn't matter if you're driving behind a truck, next to it or making a lane change, you should leave as much space as possible. It takes commercial trucks more time to stop, so leaving additional space helps keep you safe.
• Wide turns are common: On city streets, commercial truckers often struggle to share the road with others. You can make life easier on them by leaving more space, such as when a trucker is setting up a right turn.

As you drive through the state of Montana, it's likely that you'll come across unsafe truckers who don't seem to care about anything but their own schedule. This is frustrating, but there are steps you can take to enhance your safety. Most importantly, you should never shy away from reporting an unsafe trucker.

If you want to do this, here are three steps to take:

• Your safety comes first: For example, don't pull out your phone to record a bad driver. This puts you at risk of causing an accident. Instead, take mental notes and then pull to safety before calling 911.
• Don't confront another driver: It's okay to report an unsafe trucker to police, but you should never take matters into your own hands. If you do this, it could escalate an already dangerous situation.
• Call 911: This is the best way to get an unsafe trucker off the road. Provide the dispatcher with as much information as you have, including your location and a description of the truck. Also, tell the dispatcher about the type of behavior you witnessed, such as a trucker who is talking on a phone or losing control of their vehicle.

You hear stories about the aggressive drivers in New York. You see pictures of the bumper-to-bumper traffic in Los Angeles. It feels like the big city has the worst drivers and carries the highest level of risk. Surely, the highly populated coastal states must have some of the highest accident fatality numbers, right?

By comparison, driving across Montana seems so safe and easy that it's almost boring. No city in the state compares to L.A. or The Big Apple. It's easy to find wide-open roads where you barely see another car. You feel relaxed and free behind the wheel; there is something of the American open ranch still alive in Montana, and you enjoy exploring it.