Student drivers learn why they should stay out of the 'no-zone'

It looked like all the right ingredients for an accident: a UPS freight truck with a pickup on its right, a car on its left and another behind it.

But this static gathering of usually moving metal at Mandarin High School's summer driver education course was set up to prevent accidents with trucks, not cause them.

As 30 students gathered in the steamy morning heat Monday, they learned the pickup and cars were in the truck's "no-zones" - big blind spots where another vehicle next to, behind or in front is invisible from the truck driver's view.

It all became visible when they got in a big rig to see what a trucker's mirrors show - and don't show.

"It's very hard to see what's behind and around you. It's a very large truck," said Mandarin High student Jon Scully, 15. "They can't see you. [I didn't realize that] as much as I did now being in the cab. ... I'll stay out of their way."

"I didn't realize they couldn't see that much, that the blind spot was as big as they said," added Bishop Kenny High School student Lauren Gerhardstein. "I'll be more careful and make sure they can see me."

Mandarin High offers driver's ed for its students at 2:30 p.m. weekdays during the school year. It also offered five courses this summer, open to area high school students age 15 or older for $135 each.

Normally, only the sedans used by instructors and teens occupy the driving range on Greenland Road. But Monday morning, a 60-foot-long, 10-wheel Volvo diesel truck covered in graphics depicting a truck's "no-zones" rolled in.

UPS driver Robert Foskey brings a rig to driver education programs at Mandarin High and other schools to give teens information on driving safely around them. The 20-year veteran trucker was joined by fellow UPS driver Roger Nicholson, AAA Cooper driver David Leach, Florida DOT Officer Becky Arsenault and Mandarin High driving instructor Katherine Masse.

Foskey kicked off the program in a classroom filled with posters reminding young drivers to "Move Over - It's the Law" and "Winners Don't Drink and Drive." But his own slogan was "Don't Hang Out in the No-Zone."

"It is the blind spots around the truck where you don't want to be caught," the Mandarin driver told them. "Have you ever been down the road passing a semi truck and its turn signal comes on? Shortly thereafter, he comes right over on you? You will see why now."

The biggest blind spot is in the truck driver's right-side mirror, where a passing car disappears for almost the entire length of the rig, Foskey said. A car in the left lane just behind the truck driver's door isn't visible. One following close behind can't be seen in the sideview mirrors, and neither can a car or pedestrian right in front of the grill.

Students saw films that showed what happens if they follow a truck too closely and it stops suddenly, how a car can be hit by a truck if it's turning, and how a loaded truck needs a football field worth of road to stop from 55 mph.

Nicholson told them what he's seen from his truck.

"You can't be texting on your phone or using that cell phone. You can't be watching DVDs. I see people all the time with a DVD player on the dash," he said, adding he even saw someone using a laptop computer.

Then students from six area public and private schools climbed into the truck's seat. Foskey climbed on a step next to the left-side mirror and Leach stood next to the truck, visible in the sideview mirror.

"You see David [Leach] here. A quick move three feet to the left, where a small vehicle or motorcycle would be anyway, and you can't see him at all, much less the car in front of him," Foskey told Stanton College Preparatory School student Prem Warde, in the truck seat.

Arsenault's police cruiser behind the truck was invisible to the teens, while the big pickup parked halfway down the rig's right side couldn't be seen in the right-side mirror.

In the end, Bishop Snyder High School student Matthew Cavallo, 16, said he learned a trucker sitting high up really can't see much.

"I never realized they didn't have a rear-view mirror - it never occurred to me. And the blind spots were huge," he said. "You can just go from one blind spot to another when you try to pass them."