You may not be surprised to learn that the truck is responsible for a large proportion of accidents on our roads. The truck, a mighty vehicle capable of traveling many miles while hauling a massive trailer balancing a colossal weight while passing unsuspecting motorists sitting tall, blinking their lights or blasting their horns at other members of the truck community.

The population of trucks on the road today makes up around two in a hundred vehicles so ~ 2 per cent, what you might not have known is that trucks are involved in some (not necessarily at fault always, just involved in) eight out of one hundred road incidents. The sheer physical size and weight of a truck and trailer makes them a very dangerous combination when involved in a road traffic accident with other motorists, many pile ups that cause the massive tail backs we see on our busy motorways will involve a truck and trailer. There are potentially fatal accidents that can happen when a semi-truck is involved after all they are kind of like a tank.

The most common accidents that occur involving the truck and trailer are as follows:

• Jack-Knifing: the size of a truck and trailer means they are likely to jack knife should the truck skid or lose control, this is an extremely dangerous situation which forces the towed trailer to sit at a right angle, lose all traction and just glide like a the sweeper at the bowling centre collecting the pins which you didn't manage to knock down.

• Under Ride: If you get to close to a truck and they suddenly slam on the brakes, watch out! Most truck beds are higher than the bonnet of your car, this means you could wind up being caught under their truck, worse still the trucker might not notice what with the haste in braking and the reflex of the trailer catching up with them, they also won't be able to see you if you were tailgating them.

• Squeeze-play: When a truck takes a wide birth, don't try to go alongside them. They need extra room to manoeuvre because of their size they may come into the lane you're in. Give them the space to take their turn, if you're alongside them you risk being squeezed between the truck and whatever is on the other side of you, this is because there is a blind spot directly on each side of a truck, much like in a standard car.

• Rollover: When a truck tries to corner at speed they can tip over, also if they catch a curb while articulated while turning this can occur and can cause them to simply roll onto their side or roll.