Trucking’s Safety Emphasis Pays Off

At a time when good news in the trucking industry is hard to come by, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration served up a generous helping of it last week when it said that truck-related highway fatalities plummeted 12% last year.

Yes, you read that right: 12%.

In fact, highway deaths somehow related to large trucks have fallen for three years in a row now, and the number of fatalities in 2008 was the lowest since the federal government started keeping track of them in 1975.

Of course, some of that drop is because of the unfortunate fact that trucks ran fewer miles last year because of the recession. But consider this: All driving was also down last year, yet truck-related fatalities fell more than the total of all highway deaths, which NHTSA said dropped 9.7% because all driving — commuting, recreation, shopping — is down, thanks again to the recession.

The Federal Highway Administration estimated that all vehicle miles dropped 2.7% in 2008.

So clearly, trucking is doing something right.

Certainly there is room for improvement — 4,229 people killed in truck-related crashes is still too many. But trucking has put an emphasis on safety, and it’s paying off.

Rose McMurray, acting head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said the drop in truck miles was surely a factor, but added, “We’d also like to think that there’s been more of a sustained effort by the industry, law enforcement governments both state and federal, and safety groups focusing more attention on this problem.”

Seat belts are one reason. FMCSA recently said seat-belt use in medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles increased to 72% in 2008 from 65% the year before.

That’s reflected in NHTSA’s data: Deaths of truck drivers and passengers fell 16% last year. As Ms. McMurray said: “When crashes do occur, the 72% belt-use rate . . . has to result in drivers not being ejected and not being killed as a result of a serious crash.”

And we think recent changes in the driver hours-of-service rules have helped. FMCSA’s revised rule — cutting a driver’s work day to 14 hours from 15 and lengthening the required rest period to 10 hours from eight — went into effect in 2004.

Opponents of the new rule are still in court, trying to overturn it. But the fact remains: In three of the four years since the revisions went into effect, truck-related fatalities have fallen.

And that’s very good news.