The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Truck Safety

Don’t let the facts stand in the way of a news report.

Truck Driver Safety – WCBD-TV, Charleston, South Carolina
Police are looking into another traffic accident involving an 18- wheeler truck this comes after a number of accidents involving big trucks that tied up Low country roads last week. Charleston county investigators say 28-year-old Errol Hylton was reaching for cigarettes when he ran his 18-wheeler off the road

I admit this isn’t good, but he didnt hit anyone else or kill anyone. Without mentioning that, the story goes on…

In 2002, there were 4,083 crashes involving heavy trucks. 86 people were killed in those accidents and more than 1500 were injured. Bottom line, when it comes to driving heavy-duty trucks, There are many rules and regulations and police are cracking down looking for violators.

Mr. TV Newsman makes all that sound pretty bad. I’m not even in the news business and I came up with these: According to a study done for FMCSA completed in 1999.

THE UNSAFE DRIVING ACTS OF MOTORISTS IN THE VICINITY OF LARGE TRUCKS
The number of fatal crashes involving large trucks has declined significantly during the past decade, from more than 4 per 100 million miles driven during the 1980s to about 2.5 fatal crashes per 100 million miles now.

The disproportionate number of fatalities resulting from truck collisions, and the disproportionate representation of passenger vehicle operators among those fatalities, creates the perception among many motorists and some law enforcement officers that truck drivers must be disproportionately at fault. Analyzes conducted during the current study, and other recent work that has focused on this issue, indicate that the drivers of passenger vehicles, rather than truck drivers, are disproportionately responsible for crashes involving passenger vehicles and large trucks. Further, ignorance of the performance limitations of large trucks appears to be a contributing factor to many of the unsafe driving acts of motorists.

Number of fatal crashes declining and the ones that do happen are mostly the fault of the car drivers. And then there’s this -

Fatal Accident Rate Down By Nearly One-Third Over Past 10 Years
New Federal Highway Administration vehicle mileage figures – used to help determine crash rates for all vehicles – show the new 2000 rate for large trucks at 2.2 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicles-miles-traveled.

This puts the rate at its lowest point since the U.S. Department of Transportation began keeping large truck safety records in 1975.

According to federal statistics, the overall large truck fatal crash rate has been cut by 29 percent over the past decade.

And what about this piece of news you’re not going to see anywhere in the mainstream press.

CVSA
The results are in from the 72-hour Roadcheck 2004 that took place recently throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Of the 57,785 driver and vehicle inspections conducted, a CVSA decal was placed on 27,749 commercial vehicles showing that no safety violations were found during the vehicle inspection. That is the highest number of vehicles with no violations discovered in the history of the 16 previous annual Roadchecks.

You can bet that if it was a record the other way, it would be front page news. It’s all how you want to spin it. Sometimes it seems that no matter how the industry works at safety, most want to keep us under the sign of Killer Trucks.

Originally posted 2008-08-10 04:00:00.