Tractor Trailers can truly give you a blind eye.

On Oct. 19, UPS driver Tim Cooley visited Chapman drivers education students.

He brought his 48-foot-long and 13-feet-6-inches-tall tractor trailer along with him.

This was his fourth year coming to inform students on the safety of driving close to tractor trailers.

“He’s here to teach us about safe following distance,” said sophomore David Koshin.

Each student got to climb into the truck to see if they could spot driver’s education teacher Kevin Carr’s truck from 150 feet away. To each student’s surprise, none of them could see the truck.

Cooley made it very clear that students should know not to not weave in and out of traffic and to also watch out for road debris, known by truck drivers as “alligators.”

After each student climbed into the truck, they took a tour from the back to the front of the trailer.

Cooley informed students that too many people take risks when they are driving around trucks.

“I have seen cars big and small try to get around me and many other truck drivers,” he said. “It’s not safe.”

The statistics back up his claim.

“A total of 3,602 people died in large truck crashes in 2013. Sixteen percent of these deaths were truck occupants, 67 percent were occupants of cars and other passenger vehicles, and 15 percent were pedestrians, bicyclists or motorcyclists,” according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Cooley informed students on the “Move Over” law.

The Move Over law requires drivers to slow down, control their vehicle and maintain a safe speed while passing a temporary work zone. Cooley informed students on the importance of this law considering 390 people have been killed in South Carolina over the past few years from not paying attention to people on the side of the road. Many of the people killed were truck drivers.

Cooley said his goal was not to scare students but to help them understand how to drive safely.

“I don’t want to put a fear of trucks in you,” he said. “I want you to know what’s safe and what’s not.”