The roads are much quieter at night, so it is understandable why so many trucks make use of the dark hours to carry out their journeys.
In some ways, it is better for everyone. Trucks can cause massive delays for commuters as they weave through town traffic to get to their final destination. In turn, all those commuters in their car give truckers a lot more vehicles to look out for and increase how long the trucker’s journey takes.
On top of that many stores prefer to take deliveries at night, leaving the days free to concentrate on customers.
THE PROBLEM IS THAT NIGHTTIME DRIVING IS LESS SAFE THAN DAYTIME DRIVING
This applies regardless of the vehicle you are in. Here are some of the added dangers you should consider if you need to journey at night:
- Drivers are more liable to drift off: Owls are nocturnal. Humans are not. Regardless of how many years someone has been working at night, it goes against our body’s natural instincts to be awake after dark. What’s worse is that some truck drivers work shift patterns that see them mix days and nights. After a series of day shifts, the first night’s work can come as a particular shock to the system, and falling asleep at the wheel is a real prospect.
- It is harder to see things: Back to owls again. Their eyes are adapted to see at night. Ours are evolved for daytime vision. It can be hard enough to spot everything happening on the road in good light, and darkness only makes it harder.
If you head out on the roads at night, it should at least be easier to give trucks a wide berth than on the congested daytime roads. If you are injured in a truck crash, assuming tiredness played a role is a good place to start when looking to show how the truck driver was at fault.
