On January 31, Susan Eastin’s senior AVID class had a special guest speaker come and speak to them during their class. The Drive Smart Weld County program that put on the seat belt assembly during the first semester was responsible for bringing Scott Murray, a professional truck driver of 35 years, into the classroom.

Murray wasn’t in the class to encourage students to drive trucks, rather he was trying to bring attention to high school students about what driving a big rig is like and the awareness drivers need to have around them.

Murray attended UNC to earn a degree in business and has also been teaching at Aims Community College. Even though he has been able to teach about truck driving and has a college degree, he has stuck with doing what he loves: driving a big rig.

He has driven over 5 million miles. He has been to each coast of the United States, Canada twice, and Mexico once. “I have traveled to the moon and back in my big rig. I love driving the trucks because I have gotten to travel so much and have so much freedom,” Murray said.

“I’m not stuck in an office building or stuck doing something I don’t enjoy. I have seen things that most people wouldn’t believe is even true. It is an amazing job and I make pretty good money doing it.”

Murray’s main point he wanted to get across to students and to drivers is to pay attention. Driving a big rig is much different than driving a regular car. The trucks take way longer to stop, have many blind spots, and there are many precautions to driving around a truck. If the main idea of “pay attention” gets across, it makes driving a big rig easy for everyone.

The Drive Smart program brought a truck simulator on Wednesday February 7, to West. There, students were able to get into a truck cab and experience blind spots and how large the trucks actually are. The truck was parked in the south parking lot and was welcome to all students. The truck was open for students to come and experience the simulator during third period and lunch.

“I think this was a great opportunity for students to learn some safety tips about sharing the road with semi trucks,” Eastin, said.

“I really learned that you need to be careful while driving next to a semi because I got the chance to experience how tough it is to see the sides, front, and back of the truck,” senior AVID student Jair Rodriguez said.