Paul Vikner, president and CEO of Mack Trucks, said the company again will serve as a primary sponsor of the American Trucking Associations’ Share the Road program next year, which will mark Mack’s sixth consecutive year of sponsorship.
Vikner made the announcement Monday, Oct. 17 after receiving an award recognizing his company’s 2005 sponsorship of this highway safety initiative at the ATA’s Management Conference and Exhibition in Boston.
Designed to enhance the safety of America’s roadways by teaching car drivers how to drive around large trucks safely, Share the Road delivers life-saving messages to hundreds of U.S. cities and reaches millions of motorists annually. The program uses as spokespeople a group of professional truck drivers with exemplary safety records. These drivers conduct safety demonstrations for local media in cities around the country as a way to deliver the program’s life-saving messages about potential blind spots, safe following distances, truck stopping distances and the like.
“On behalf of our customers, dealers, dedicated staff and the rest of the Mack family, it is my pleasure to announce today that we will continue our support of Share the Road next year,” Vikner said. “Safety is one of Mack’s top priorities, and we encourage others in the trucking industry with a similar commitment to join us and Chevron Delo as primary sponsors, as together with the ATA we seek to extend the reach of this very important safety initiative. By teaching motorists how to safely drive around large trucks, Share the Road is playing a key role in the effort to reduce the number of truck-related highway fatalities. If the program results in just one life saved, then our efforts are more than worth it.”
According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, car drivers inadvertently initiate up to 75 percent of all truck-involved auto fatalities. And the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration indicates that 35 percent of these accidents occur in a truck’s blind spots. By educating motorists about potential blind spots, safe merging and stopping distances, Share the Road — along with other trucking industry safety initiatives — is helping to reduce the number of accidents and save lives.
“We are very grateful to Mack for its tremendous support of Share the Road,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “In fact, just recently, the company stepped up even further by giving us a brand new truck for use in the program. And we now look forward to bringing aboard additional industry sponsors to help get the message out that we all have a reponsibility to share the road safely.”
