Truck Crash Fatalities Are Lowest Ever, FMCSA Final Data Analysis Confirms

Major gains in truck highway safety were confirmed recently when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration posted the final results of 2009 crash data showing that fatalities in truck-involved crashes fell to the lowest level in history.

The data confirm preliminary numbers released in April that truck-involved crashes fell more than 14% to 1.17 per 100 million miles in 2009, from 1.37 in 2008, which had been the lowest ever.

FMCSA’s final analysis also showed that from 2007 to 2009, the number of fatal large-truck-involved crashes fell 31% to 3,215 from 4,633.

The agency’s most recent fatality rates and numbers, which were posted on the FMCSA website in late October, also showed that since 2000, the rate of fatal crashes involving large trucks has fallen from 2.23 crashes per 100 million miles to 1.04 crashes per 100 million miles.

“These safety gains are the result of many things: sensible regulation; improvements in technology; slower, more fuel-efficient driving; the dedication of professional drivers and safety directors; as well as more effective enforcement techniques that look at all the factors involved in crashes, not just a select few,” said American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves.

Graves, however, criticized FMCSA officials for not doing more to “share this good news about trucking’s safety progress.”

“We are at a loss on why FMCSA chose not to communicate this final data indicating great safety pro-gress,” Graves added.

David Osiecki, an ATA senior vice president, said the new numbers are even more encouraging than those released in a preliminary report in April by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (4-18, p. 1).

“The final numbers were really good news for industry and for FMCSA,” Osiecki said. “But they did nothing, other than post it on their website.”

An FMCSA spokeswoman said the only new information in the final report was the Federal Highway Administration’s vehicle-miles-traveled and vehicle registration data. FMCSA published the initial results when NHTSA released the data, the spokeswoman said.

From 2007 to 2009, injury crashes decreased by 30%, dropping from 76,000 to 53,000. Crashes resulting in property damage decreased by 28%, from 333,000 to 239,000.

The report comes at a time when trucking industry advocates are chiding agency officials for proposing a new hours-of-service rule, although motor carriers have made significant safety improvements under the existing rule.

In a Nov. 15 letter to Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Graves said the data, both in terms of absolute numbers and in rates, are “overwhelmingly positive, a clear indication of how well trucking is performing, operating under current HOS rules.”

Among the other highlights of the study:

• Of the 33,808 people killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2009, 10%, or 3,380, died in crashes involving a large truck. Also, 74,000 people were injured in crashes involving large trucks; 15% of those killed and 22% of those injured were occupants of large trucks.

• From 2007 to 2009, the number of large trucks involved in injury crashes per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled by large trucks declined by 26%.

• Large truck tractors pulling semi-trailers accounted for 61% of the large trucks involved in fatal crashes and 47% of the large trucks involved in nonfatal crashes.

• Truck tractors pulling a semi-trailer and a full trailer accounted for only 3% of large trucks involved in fatal and nonfatal crashes. Triples accounted for 0.1% of all large trucks involved in fatal crashes.

• In fatal crashes involving large trucks, driver-related factors were recorded for 31% of the large truck drivers. By comparison, driver-related factors were recorded for 62% of passenger-vehicle drivers involved in fatal crashes.

• Police reported that 82% of the drivers of large trucks involved in fatal crashes were wearing their safety belts, compared with 63% of passenger vehicle drivers.