NHTSA Revises ’06 Truck Deaths Down

By Sean McNally, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the July 30 print edition of Transport Topics.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week revised its truck-fatality report for 2006, saying the number of people killed in truck-related crashes fell below 5,000 for the first time in five years.
According to NHTSA’s revised data, 4,995 people died in truck-involved crashes last year, down 4.7% from 2005’s total of 5,240. The agency’s May preliminary report, based on less complete data, said fatalities in truck-related crashes dropped 3.7% (6-4, p. 1).
The new total is the lowest since 2002, when there were 4,939 fatalities.
“Obviously, it is fantastic news that the truck fatalities are back below 5,000 and the rate is likely to be the lowest in recorded history,” said Dave Osiecki, vice president of safety, security and operations for American Trucking Associations.
NHTSA’s traffic fatality data do not include total miles driven, so the rate of fatalities — or number of deaths per million miles driven — will be calculated when mileage information is available later this year.
NHTSA also said 23,000 people were injured in truck-related crashes in 2006, down 15% from the 27,000 hurt in 2005.
The agency’s final tally of highway fatalities, released July 23, said all highway deaths fell 2% to 42,642 in 2006.
In the new report, NHTSA also revised its total for 2005, raising it by 28 deaths from 5,212 to 5,240.
“We are very pleased with the numbers,” David Hugel, deputy administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, told Transport Topics. “I think that they show that some of the programs that have been in effect are starting to work.”
Hugel said more compliance reviews and roadside inspections, as well as new programs allowing commercial vehicle enforcement officials to take action against passenger vehicles near large trucks, helped reduce the fatality figures.
“I was pleased to see that highway fatalities related to large truck accidents experienced the same decline in 2006 that most of the rest of the highway sector showed. We need to continue this trend,” said Mark Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Rosenker urged FMCSA to implement a number of the board’s recommendations, including “dealing with improving the safety of motor carrier operations and preventing medically unqualified drivers from operating commercial vehicles.”
Stephen Campbell, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, told TT that while he was “heartened that less people lost their lives in truck crashes, there is still a long way to go.”
“This is good news, but one death is too many,” Campbell said.
Later this year, after the Federal Highway Administration tabulates the number of miles driven by trucks during 2006, the annual fatality rate can be calculated. A study last year by Transport Topics showed the fatality rate fell, but the fatal crash rate remained flat (12-4, p. 1).
Hugel said FMCSA believed the rate is likely to fall because “the number of vehicle miles traveled is increasing [and] the number of vehicles on the road is increasing.”
Not all industry officials were convinced.
“Obviously, it’s always good to see the numbers going down,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, “but it begs the question: Is that related to an economic slowdown that we’ve seen in trucking, that’s maybe a year old?”
The amount of freight hauled by U.S. trucks fell 3% in 2006, ATA said earlier this year (2-5, p. 1).
Spencer also said he was concerned that the number of truck occupants, both drivers and passengers, was not falling as fast as the overall truck fatality rate, saying that part of the NHTSA report was “hardly good news.”
In 2006, NHTSA reported that 805 truck occupants died in crashes, up one from the 804 truck occupants killed in 2005.
“One discouraging trend,” Hugel said, “is the number of truck-occupant deaths. We’re concerned about that.”
Hugel said the agency was working to encourage truckers to use safety belts while they drive.
“We know traditionally many drivers don’t wear their safety belts,” he said, “so we would encourage them to.”
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said “tough safety requirements and new technologies are helping make our vehicles safer and our roads less deadly. But we all must do more when so many are killed or seriously hurt on our roads every day.”