Don’t let Billboards become Distractions

Sometimes the highways and local roads can look the same after you have been traveling for a while. After spending hours in your commercial truck, you may be looking for anything to get a break. Then you spot a billboard. It may be digital, or it may be extremely colorful. Although you may see this as a harmless advertisement, it may be more distracting than you realize.

As an owner operator, you should be informing your employees about the distractions they could face on the road. This includes billboards and other types of advertisements. You always want your drivers to pay attention to the road, but failure to focus could result in costly accidents and injuries. Here are some of the risk factors associated with billboards on roads:

                                                     

• A trucker should only be thinking about driving. But when their stomach starts to grumble or their mind drifts, they may be focusing on other things. Seeing a digital billboard with a video could cause your employee to forget about the surrounding traffic, creating a potentially dangerous situation.
• With a digital billboard always changing its message, an added distraction has been created for drivers.
• At night, the changing lights on a digital billboard may make it more difficult for a driver to see things like traffic lights, brake lights, or people crossing the street.
• A digital billboard can become a fire hazard under certain circumstances. With electricity running through it, in the event of a malfunction or strong winds, sparks could start a fire below it.

At Stassen Insurance, we hope you understand the dangers presented by these types of ads. Although it is important for your drivers to read signs to know where they are going, they should not let their eyes stray for too long. If you feel your trucking company requires more protection for unpredictable events, we can help. The Truck Insurance Store, the trucking insurance division of Stassen Insurance, provides a wide range of commercial truck insurance coverage throughout Illinois and Tennessee. We can help you upgrade, consolidate, or find new insurance for your commercial truck and business.

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