Trucking Accident Truck

Stronger Federal Action Needed to Prevent Truck Accidents

July 31, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Has the death toll from crashes involving large trucks finally become intolerable? Between 2007 and 2009, an average of over 4,000 people a year were killed in truck accidents . Nearly 90,000 more per year were injured during that time.

One respected safety advocate, Joan Claybrook of the Truck Safety Coalition, is blunt in assigning responsibility for the ongoing carnage. "Families and truck drivers are being slaughtered on our highways because of the trucking industry's relentless push for bigger, overweight trucks operated by drivers who are exhausted and pressured to meet unreasonable delivery deadlines."

Safety groups have been making this argument for years with little success. But the time for effective action to improve trucking safety may at last be at hand. It is no longer only safety groups calling for more effective regulation of the trucking industry; the Teamsters union, which represents many truck drivers, is now doing so as well.

Safe Highways Legislation

One significant step in improving truck safety would be for Congress to pass the Safe Highways and Infrastructure Protection Act. The proposed legislation calls for limitations on the size of trucks, which the industry seeks to make ever larger.

Research shows that so-called "longer combination vehicles" (LCVs) and triple-trailer trucks are considerably more dangerous than today's single-trailer trucks. The Safe Highways legislation, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ and Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass, would keep these over-sized trucks off the road in the interest of safety.

These limitations make sense. After all, motorists should not be put at unreasonable risk on the road from monster-size trucks. At 100,000 pounds, the larger trucks are, as Sen. Lautenberg puts it, "behemoths." And the triple-trailers are almost absurdly elongated -- their length is like the height of a 10-story building.

Both safety groups and the Teamsters union, which represents 600,000 drivers, support the legislation.

Federal Regulations on Trucking Safety

Another important element in making trucking safer involves tightening federal rules on hours of service (HOS) regulations for truck drivers and record-keeping aboard trucks. For years, many truck accidents have been caused by driver fatigue, and drivers have often felt under pressure to falsify their logbooks to conceal their excessive hours behind the wheel without proper rest.

Baton Rouge trucking accident blamed on seizure | Baton Rouge Car ...

A trucking accident is typically very serious and can result in catastrophic personal injuries if the accident involves a collision with a passenger vehicle or a motorcycle. Commercial vehicles such as semi tractor-trailers are many times heavier than typical passenger vehicles and usually cause severe injuries and fatalities.

The danger of a trucking accident is one of the reasons why the owners of commercial vehicles should make sure that their drivers are properly trained and exercise enough caution to protect against the possibility of a trucking accident. One recent Baton Rouge trucking accident appears to have been preventable; a truck driver who has a history of seizures crashed his 18-wheeler into a tire store along Airline Highway last week.

The accident happened last Saturday morning shortly before 9:30 at the Tire Kingdom store near Goodwood Boulevard. The massive truck crossed the median of the road, barreled into oncoming traffic, and slammed into the store. Although there are no reports of anyone inside the store being injured or of this truck hitting any other vehicles, it is likely that several people would have lost their lives if this accident happened a few hours later when road traffic increased.

Some may say that this accident could have been prevented. Drivers who have a history of seizures must ensure that they are properly medicated when driving, especially when large vehicles such as this 18-wheeler are at issue. Drivers who consistently drive despite an uncontrollable seizure disorder may be held criminally and civilly liable for their actions and any damage arising out of trucking accidents that they cause.

Source: WAFB, " 18-wheeler crashes into tire store ," Heather Mason, 7/23/11

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