Posted on 03/12/2007 9:26:20 PM PDT by NRA2BFree
Safety coalition criticizes federal rules as 'putting cargo over people'
WASHINGTON - More than 100 people a week are killed in large-truck crashes in this country, according to safety groups that called Monday for reducing how long big-rig drivers can work without rest.
Wyoming, Arkansas and Oklahoma are the deadliest states for big truck crashes; Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut are the safest, according to The Truck Safety Coalition. It released state rankings, based on the number of fatalities per 100,000 residents during 2005, the most recent year with complete federal government figures.
Created by Congress in 1999, the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration “has failed miserably,” said Joan Claybrook, chair of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways. “It is shortchanging safety for the productivity and economic interests of the trucking industry.”
In 1999, when the agency was created, 5,380 people died in crashes with big trucks. “That figure has barely budged,” Claybrook said at a news conference by the coalition of truck safety groups.
Deaths in crashes of large trucks numbered 5,212 in 2005, plus 114,000 injured. Large trucks account for 3 percent of registered vehicles but 12 percent to 13 percent of traffic fatalities.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
What were the numbers on boiler explosions last year?
One hundred people a week are killed on the highways?!?!? It's a quagmire! We've got to pull out of the interstate highway system! Time to cut-and-run from the big rigs! And speaking of Mexican trucks - a joke, indeed. Speaking generally, they appear to have no mechanical skills whatever. I've ridden in taxis and busses in Mexico, and each time, wondered if my will were up to date or even if my body would ever be found in the wreckage. Scarey.
True, but the real cause of truck wrecks are tired drivers but not from driving. The common sense fix is to limit the number of pick ups and drops a big truck can make, open shipping and receiving docks 24 hours a day in big cities, and no loading and unloading by drivers. limit the number of hours it takes to load and unload. My niece was a driver for years, these are most of the things I've heard her bitch about.
That sucks, because no SUV is big enough in a head-on with these vehicles. We are truly at the mercy of truckers not to murder us.
Locally, one trailer took out a telephone poll a couple years ago after the driver fell asleep. He was fine... very minor injuries from that accident.
Sheesh!
Wyoming, with I-80 crossing the Continental Divide, sees more continuous truck traffic than many other states, while having a tiny population skews the figures out of any semblance of reality.
That most likely applies elsewhere, too.
Let them try rerunning the figures based on fatalities/100,000 trucker miles in each state, although that probably wouldn't push their agenda.
Actually, I think the reason truckers have so many accidents is because of drugs. Of course, being tired doesn't help. I live close to Interstate 40 and I have to drive it all the time, and they're dangerous.
Me too. They do it all the time.
That sucks, because no SUV is big enough in a head-on with these vehicles. We are truly at the mercy of truckers not to murder us.
I know what you mean. I drive a SUV and when they come up behind you they just tower over you. I don't worry about a head on as much as I worry about them just running over the top of me.
Locally, one trailer took out a telephone poll a couple years ago after the driver fell asleep. He was fine... very minor injuries from that accident.
We have so many fatalities on I-40 (where I live), because they drive all night and they are always running over someone. This past year was a bad one for them because there were a few where the trucks collided with each other and they were the ones killed.
I drive in very congested truck traffic, along the California Big Valley and in the Bay Area. I don't want to minimize negligent truck drivers but how many of these accidents were actually caused by the truck drivers as opposed to idiotic car and SUV drivers who think trucks can stop or turn as easily as my Beemer? I don't believe a lot of drivers truly appreciate the stopping and turning limitations of fully loaded semis.
Actually, I think that happens a lot more then this report lets on. I've talked to many truck drivers who've gone off the road in order not to hit some idiot driver.
I was driving my car wondering if I would bottom out on the asphalt patches that bubbled out from inbetween the buckled cracks.
I also remember stopping for a quick bite in Arkansas and paying way too much in taxes... something like 15%?
In Arkansas, you witnessed the results of the Great Mike Huckabee in action: "great roads" at the cost of the highest state and local tax burden in the region.
Remember that when you vote.
In that case, truck sales should skyrocket as SUV owners trade up in size for safety sake!!!
Precisely ... Connecticut, ranked the safest, is approximately 10% the size of Wyoming and has a population of 3.45 million. Wyoming, a population of a little over 501 thousand. These are bogus statistics formulated to push an agenda.
Hey, those asphalt patches are actually Arkansas Speed Bumps designed to keep traffic at a slower pace!
True, but the roads were much worse during the Clinton governorship. He never spent a dime on the roads.
IMO the strong majority of fatal truck crashes are caused by stupid drivers of passenger vehicles cutting the trucks off.
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