ABOUT TRUCK SAFETY COALITION

The Truck Safety Coalition is a partnership between The Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) Foundation, and Parents Against Tired Truckers (P.A.T.T).  The Truck Safety Coalition is dedicated to reducing the number of deaths and injuries caused by truck-related crashes, providing compassionate support to truck crash survivors and families of truck crash victims, and educating the public, policy-makers and media about truck safety issues.   

Citizens For Reliable And Safe Highways (CRASH)

Citizens For Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) was formed in 1990 to help mitigate the devastating problem of truck crashes.  CRASH is a nationwide, grassroots non-profit organization dedicated to improving overall truck safety in the U.S. and eliminating the senseless deaths and injuries caused by truck crashes every year.  We represent the millions of Americans who travel the nation’s highways every day, including truck drivers, motorists, crash survivors and families of truck crash victims. CRASH and CRASH volunteers work at all levels of government to initiate and promote truck safety legislation around the issues of truck size and weight, truck driver fatigue, and vehicle maintenance.  Our goal is to make safety as important as productivity in all U.S. trucking operations.

Members of CRASH come from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and affiliations.  CRASH’s Board of Directors are national leaders who volunteer their services to advance our public safety objectives.  Many volunteers join our organization because they have seen the trauma caused by large truck crashes firsthand.  CRASH volunteers are often members of medical associations, emergency care units, brain injury foundations, state highway patrols, and crash reconstructionist teams.  Together with truck crash survivors and the families of truck crash victims, these individuals truly understand the urgency behind our fight to save lives by improving truck safety standards.  Truck drivers, too, are an integral part of the CRASH team, reminding us that the current system often forces drivers to make a choice between safety and earning a livable wage.  Finally, many CRASH members are just regular people, motorists who share the roads with big rig trucks and want to know those trucks operate safely.

• Reducing the number of fatalities & injuries caused by truck-related crashes.

• Providing compassionate support to truck crash survivors and families of truck crash victims.

• Raising public awareness of important safety issues.

• Educating legislators on issues related to truck safety regulation.

• Reducing the problem of truck driver fatigue.

• Freezing truck size and weight limits at current levels.

• Increasing compliance with truck safety rules and regulations and improving truck maintenance standards.

Parents Against Tired Truckers (P.A.T.T.)

Parents Against Tired Truckers (P.A.T.T.) was formed when a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel of his 80,000-pound rig, crashed, and killed four innocent teenagers. The only criminal charge that was brought against the truck driver was for a logbook violation, which resulted in a four-month jail sentence and a $1,000.00 fine.  The trucking company received no criminal penalty for the teenagers’ deaths. Thus, P.A.T.T. was formed in May of 1994. We have grown from a Maine grassroots group to a nationally recognized organization. We have been successful in bringing the fatigue issue to the forefront at National events throughout the United States. Although misunderstood by some, P.A.T.T. is not anti-trucker. In fact, many truck drivers are applauding us for addressing issues that they themselves cannot for fear of losing their jobs.

The mission of Parents Against Tired Truckers is to save lives by reducing heavy truck crashes resulting from truck driver fatigue.

 We want tired truckers off the road!  To achieve this goal, P.A.T.T. supports the following:

• Truck Drivers should be paid by the hour, for every hour that they work.  As all other Americans, truck drivers should be included under the protection of the “Fair Labor Standards Act”.  (Pay by the mile or by the load promotes fatigue - they aren’t being paid unless the wheels are turning)
• On-Board Recording Devices - Many drivers carry two or more logbooks and in many cases are encouraged to do so by their employers.  By carrying more than one logbook, truck drivers can more readily falsify information regarding their hours of service -vs.- down time.  Studies performed by the trucking industry have shown that drivers spend, on average, between 33 and 44 hours each week waiting to load or unload.  In order to make a living, many drivers fail to “log” this time as required, and still drive an additional 70 hours, which leads to severe sleep deprivation.
• Loading, unloading and waiting to load or unload are major contributing factors to fatigue.  The wait time and environment in which the truck driver must wait (not being allowed to sleep for fear that they will miss their loading call, therefore resulting in being sent to the bottom of the list for an even longer wait) needs to be changed.
• The motor carrier industry and the federal government need to stop using mileage as an indicator for evaluating trucking industry safety.  The safety record of the trucking industry cannot be justified by the fact that the trucking industry is driving more miles.  More deaths are not better, regardless of overall mileage.  This philosophy is flawed and must be changed.