A recent op-ed in the New York Times chastised the trucking industry and Congress for lax attitudes toward safety. The article, written by freelancer Howard Abramson, who was an executive at the American Trucking Association for 15 years, highlighted some disturbing statistics.
For example, this year alone, traffic collisions involving large trucks killed more people than have died in airline accidents in the United States in the past 45 years. Abramson cites a 17 percent increase in large truck-related collisions from 2009 to 2013, and takes congress to task for trying to loosen—rather than tighten—the regulations that determine how long, and under what conditions, drivers of large trucks can operate.
The center piece of the story concerns a Walmart tractor-trailer that rear-ended a passenger vehicle on the New Jersey turnpike. The crash killed comedian James McNair, and injured comedian Tracy Morgan and eight others. According to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report, prior to causing the collision, the Walmart driver had been awake for 28 consecutive hours. He awoke in Georgia, then drove his personal vehicle approximately 800 miles to Delaware, where he took charge of the Walmart vehicle. The driver was then 13.5 hours into a maximum 14-hour workday—and driving 65 MPH in a 45 MPH zone—when his tractor-trailer struck the rear of the Mercedes in which McNair and Morgan were riding. Not surprisingly, the NTSB determined that “driver fatigue” was the cause of the fatal collision.
Walmart agreed to pay ten million dollars to the children of Mr. McNair, and has recently settled a legal case with Mr. Morgan for an undisclosed amount of money.
Many companies nowadays are investing in technology in hopes of developing a safer work environment for its drivers—and for the thousands of people who encounter their drivers each day on the roads. But safety directors must also look behind the technology to determine how fit their employees are to be behind the wheels of vehicle that bears their companies’ names and logos. Most safety professionals would agree that allowing a driver to begin a 14-hour driving shift after he had already driven 800 miles to begin his workday would be too risky.
Recent statistics from the NTSB report that one in eight fatal highway collisions involved large trucks, such as tractor-trailers. When the collisions occurred in safety zones, the data was even more ominous: in these instances, one in four deaths involved collisions with tractor-trailer vehicles.
Sometimes things that are permitted are not safe. Even though it might not be illegal for someone to drive a personal vehicle for 12 hours, then begin a 14-hour work shift driving a tractor-trailer vehicle, it’s not smart, and it’s certainly not safe.
Congress allows drivers who are 21 years of age to be in charge of a fully loaded tractor-trailer on the highway. Some in the nation’s capital want to reduce the minimum age for those drivers to 18. Since younger drivers—especially younger male drivers—are statistically much more likely to be involved in a vehicle collision than older drivers, do we really want 18-year-olds driving tractor-trailers weighing 80,000 pounds on our Interstates and highways? Even if Congress were to allow it, would it be safe?
Currently, truck drivers are permitted to work 70 hours over a period of eight days—and some in our nation’s capital are trying to raise that limit to 80 hours. Whatever Congress decides, whether it’s legal or permitted is not the issue. Fatigue affects everyone. The next time you see a 40-ton tractor-trailer in your rear-view mirror, you want to know that its driver is alert and focused on driving.
For more information concerning driving fatigue and distracted driving, contact the safety experts at DriverCheck, originators of the How’s My Driving industry and safety specialists since 1986.
