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Large Truck Crash Deaths Increased by Nearly 9%
Demonstrating Urgent Need for Improvements to Truck Safety Rules
Arlington, VA (December 9, 2011): While the number of overall motor vehicle crash fatalities decreased to its lowest level since 1949, truck crash fatalities increased by 8.7%, with 3,675 people being killed in 2010. In 2009, 3,380 people were killed in truck crashes and 74,000 others were injured.* The Truck Safety Coalition (TSC) commends the leadership of Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in working together with safety advocates to make our roads safer, and calls upon President Obama and Secretary LaHood to issue a safer truck driver Hours of Service (HOS) rule. Fatigued driving is a major cause of truck crash fatalities.
“The trucking industry has been basing its support for retention of the current HOS rule on the past decline in truck crash fatalities. With this significant increase of 295 more people being killed in truck crashes, we urge them to reconsider their ill-advised and dangerous position and join us to make our roads safer for innocent motorists and truck drivers,” stated John Lannen, TSC Executive Director.
Under the current rule truck drivers can drive 77 hours a week and work up to 84 hours a week. Agency actions to revise the current HOS rule are the result of a legal agreement between the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and safety and labor groups while a lawsuit is held in abeyance. The groups have challenged the current HOS rule three times in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In 2004, the Court unanimously vacated the Bush Administration HOS rule on the grounds that the government did not adequately consider the effects of longer driving hours on individual truck driver health and safety. In 2007, the court once more unanimously overturned the rule because the agency did not subject its analysis to public comment. After issuing the same rule again, as a “midnight” rule in late 2008, FMCSA was sued for a third time which led to the legal settlement. The revised proposed rule is currently under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget and is expected to be released at the end of the month.
In related news, yesterday Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Chair of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee, Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV), Chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), Chair of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee, introduced the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Enhancement Act of 2011, S.1950. The TSC commends these truck safety champions for this legislation which includes numerous provisions to improve commercial motor vehicle safety.
“While I am incredibly saddened to learn that more families lost loved ones in truck crashes last year, I am grateful that the Senate is taking action to address the myriad of problems plaguing the trucking industry,” stated Jane Mathis, Parents Against Tired Truckers Board member. “It is past time to have Electronic On-Board Recorders, EOBRS, in all trucks to ensure more consistent enforcement, which will lead to reducing truck driver fatigue. It is unfathomable to imagine even one company operating with just paper books, let alone a whole industry,” continued Mathis.
TSC Vermont Volunteer Coordinator Julie Branon Magnan remarked, “I was shocked when Senator Collins and my Senator, Senator Leahy, pushed for a permanent truck weight increase after the one-year pilot project resulted in more deaths on our roads, both Interstate and non-Interstate. I applaud Senators Lautenberg, Rockefeller and Pryor for including a study on the safety and infrastructure effects of increasing truck size and weight limits. Hopefully this will stop other states and special trucking industries from requesting similar dangerous exemptions.”
*2010 injury data has not yet been released by DOT.
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