Editorial: Improved Highway Safety

Safety within the trucking industry continues to improve. That phrase must seem obvious to Transport Topics readers but may appear to be an oxymoron among a public far too used to viewing viral images of the unfortunate aftermath of truck-involved accidents. As we know, the trucker often is immediately blamed, though statistics show that is not the case a majority of the time.

That makes the announcement of the latest highway safety statistics all the more important. The total number of people who died in accidents involving large trucks declined 1.54% to 3,903, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Furthermore, government data show trucks traveled 4 billion additional miles in 2014 than 2013, meaning that the fatality rate fell for a second straight year to 1.4 deaths per 100 million miles, based on an analysis from American Trucking Associations.

The data incorporate all trucks weighing at least 10,000 pounds. That is important to note because it means many of the “truck drivers” involved in these accidents do not hold a commercial driver license.

We have no way to know for sure, but it is logical someone with the skills required to obtain a CDL is less likely to be in an accident than others. That too, however, is often lost on the public.

“The short-term decline is welcome news, but the important figure is the long-term trend,” ATA President Bill Graves said. “Short-term changes, whether they’re increases or declines, can be blips — and . . . shouldn’t be the primary lens truck safety is viewed through. The long-term trend — in this case, a more than 40% improvement — is of paramount importance.”

The figure cited by Graves refers to the decline in the truck-involved fatality rate over the past decade, one that is hard for anti-truck “safety groups” to spin.

Of course, any celebration must be tempered by the reality that even one fatality is too many.

Dave Osiecki, ATA chief of national advocacy, noted the industry’s investment in technology and training is benefiting not only truckers but all motorists.

“And while there is more work to do, it is gratifying to see those efforts paying off in safer roads for all of us,” he said.

It is exactly that sentiment that makes us think the highway safety numbers will continue trending in the right direction for years to come.