MONTREAL — Dear pedestrians, cyclists and motorists:

We need to talk.

During my 10-year career as a long-haul trucker, and now as a city driver who navigates a 53-foot tractor-trailer in and around Montreal, on a daily basis I witness people who unwittingly endanger their lives around big trucks.

I never understood, nor would have believed, just how dangerous trucks are until I drove one.

That’s why in the wake of recent truck-related deaths in Montreal, I would like to instil that sense of danger by putting you in the truck driver’s seat and explain how I almost killed a cyclist in Cambridge, Ont., on a long-haul run several years ago.

I beg you to hear me out.

It may save your life.

It was a clear, dry day on June 27, 2008 when I was delivering a load to Cambridge.

I was working for a company that had won numerous industry safety awards. My truck was new and had the latest safety equipment. I passed all the company’s safety courses, including sessions on a full-size truck simulator, and achieved a 125,000-mile safe-driving milestone.

Here’s what happened, retold in present tense:

At about 9 a.m. on Franklin Blvd., one block from my destination, I line up my rig to turn right on Sheldon Drive, a two-lane road with a centre median. As a general rule, you need a combination of four lanes to make a right turn with a 53-foot trailer without hopping the curb, where pedestrians or cyclists might be waiting.

I half block the right lane with the end of my trailer and position the cab in the centre lane with my flasher blinking to the right.

A right-hand turn is more dangerous because I am blind on my large passenger-side mirror once my cab is articulated, for several of the seven to 10 seconds it takes to make the turn. I do have a distorted view from two convex mirrors, one on the fender and one below my large mirror. I must also keep an eye on the left front not to hit an oncoming car, or in this case the median. I also have to worry about cars trying to squeeze into the right lane as I make the turn.

A left-hand turn is much safer because I have near perfect visibility throughout.

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It’s a clear day and the sun is not blinding me or my mirrors, which are sparkling clean. I am scanning the traffic lights, the right-side mirror and the truck-legal street I am going to turn on. I am well rested and ahead of schedule.

The light turns green and the turn is going smoothly, and I am confident my rear axles, with more than 30,000 pounds of weight, will clear that curb.

Halfway through my curve, when I see the sidewalk again with my big right mirror, I see a red and white blur that quickly auto-focuses into a kid sliding on the ground on his bike heading for the middle of my trailer in the middle of my turn. I slam the brakes.

Blocking the intersection, I get out of my seat to look out the passenger-side window. The teenage cyclist is slowly getting off the ground, one of the happiest moments of my trucking career. I pull the truck over.