Truck Safety on Display

Despite occasional hyperventilation from advocacy groups and some politicians, trucking’s safety performance is steadily improving and the industry’s dedication to playing its part in keeping America’s highways safe should be unquestioned.

Proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the number of fatalities per miles traveled in accidents involving big trucks has fallen most of the years since the federal government began collecting data in 1975. The rate of highway deaths — that’s the number per 100 million miles travelled — fell for the fourth year in a row in 2008, the most recent year for which information is available.

And trucking’s record is bound to get better. Advanced safety equipment such as anti-rollover, lane departure, blind spot and collision warning systems is improving and the industry’s investment in that equipment is increasing.

On top of that, American Trucking Associations and other organizations have long advocated limiting highway speeds. ATA is pushing for truck speed governors set at 65 mph, a practice that has been standard at many of the nation’s largest fleets for years. ATA is also seeking a national speed limit of 65 mph for both cars and trucks.

That commitment to safety is why we welcome last week’s Roadcheck, a nationwide truck inspection effort cosponsored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the North American organization of state, county and federal vehicle inspectors.

Roadcheck pulled over trucks at more than 2,000 locations in North America, going over them with a fine-toothed comb. Most trucks get waved along after going through the inspection wringer, but inspectors during the first day of the kick-off event along Interstate 95 in Maryland placed 26% out of service.

“It’s just a remarkable level of effort and commitment — and, frankly, planning — to pull something like this off and be safe and get everybody safer as a result,” said Anne Ferro, who heads FMCSA. She is a former administrator of the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration and former president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association.

The declining truck-involved highway fatalities are a result of the industry’s emphasis on safety, Ferro said.

“The numbers are showing that we’re having an impact, and it’s really through CVSA’s leadership and our frontline leadership with enforcement around the country and . . . high quality safety inspectors.”