Big-rig safety laws assailed
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 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 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 truck crashes. “That figure has barely budged,” Claybrook said at a news conference held 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.
Examining a longer time frame, the motor carrier agency cited more favorable results.
“The truck fatality rate is 16 percent lower today than it was 10 years ago largely because we have invested millions of dollars working with the state and local law enforcement community to do more safety reviews and roadside inspections of trucks and buses than ever before,” Administrator John Hill said.
He noted traffic on U.S. highways had grown by more than 24 percent over the same period.
Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, told the news conference that the truck safety effort pales by comparison with federal food safety regulation.
“Nearly 61 people die from E.coli (infections) each year, which is equivalent to the four-day death toll from truck crashes,” Gillan said.
“Anytime there is an E.coli outbreak, the federal government uses every resource available to stop this public health threat,” she said. “Yet, unsafe big rigs kill and maim tens of thousands each year because truckers are pushed to drive long hours under unsafe conditions while the federal response has been silence and indifference.”
Gillan and Claybrook criticized the motor carrier administration for increasing the number of hours a driver can operate a truck by 28 percent since 2003, up to as much as 88 hours over an eight-day tour of duty.
Motor carrier administration spokesman Ian Grossman said the agency did increase the permissible number of consecutive driving hours from 10 to 11, but it also increased the time off between shifts from 8 to 10 hours in the first revision to the rules since the 1930s.