Opinion: Truck Crash Numbers Don't Add Up
You may have heard from television or radio that more people are dying in accidents involving big trucks.
You may have read something about a study showing such fatalities at an eight-year high.
You didn’t see this story in the Akron Beacon Journal. The study’s figures are questionable.
This budget line said a new study showed that 5,355 people died in highway crashes with big trucks last year. The study ranked Ohio sixth in the nation for such fatalities.
The group that did the study, CRASH (Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways), had called a news conference in Washington, D.C., to urge a crackdown on the trucking industry.
Olga Reswow, who is in charge of our national desk, saw that budget line and decided the story was worth consideration for the front page.
At our 3:30 news meeting, she brought the story to the attention of other editors. Because the trucking industry has such significant presence in Northeast Ohio, we started more reporting.
Reporter Keith McKnight was sent to the Lodi truck stop to ask truckers why fatalities were on the rise.
Business writer John Russell, who covers the trucking industry, called companies, including Roadway Express and Yellow Freight System, for comment.
He quickly found reason to question the CRASH study.
“There are a lot more miles being driven by the general public than there were 15 or 20 years ago, so there will be some more accidents, but they’re way down as a percentage of miles driven,” said Joel Childs, vice president of Roberts Express, on South Arlington Street in Akron.
Russell found that Federal Highway Administration reports show that the highway fatality rate involving large trucks has dropped from 5.1 deaths per hundred million miles driven in 1977 to 2.4 deaths in 1997.
Russell called the Ohio Trucking Association in Columbus.
“CRASH would have you believe we run the demolition derby out there every day,” said Tom King, executive director. “That’s just not true. The roads are our workplace, and we want to keep them safe.”
James Kuhnhenn in Knight Ridder’s Washington bureau was alerted to Russell’s findings.
The Miami Herald, another Knight Ridder newspaper, had already called Kuhnhenn, questioning the figures.
Knight Ridder decided not to release the story for publication.
Yet, because of the news conference and a story published that day in USA Today, word of the study spread. Some Cleveland television stations sent reporters to interview truckers and the evening newscasts told you of increasing fatalities involving trucks.
We can’t accept statistics at face value. Studies must be evaluated based on what organization funds them, the size of the sample and the context. Numbers can be manipulated to support various points of view.
In this case, fatalities involving trucks peaked at 6,702 in 1979, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The fatality rate, measured by the number of miles driven, has been dropping nearly every year since then.
I don’t want to make light of those deaths. The 5,355 people who died last year are 5,355 people too many. Yet if truckers were making the highways more dangerous, we would have told you so.
