A Welcome Reduction
This Editorial appears in the April 25 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Readers of Transport Topics see stories every week that involve the different ways trucking companies, industry suppliers and government regulators all aim to improve highway safety. So signs of progress should not be a surprise.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes decreased in 2014 by 5% to 3,744 and the total number of fatalities involving large trucks and buses declined 2.7% to 4,161 that year.
These declines occurred despite an increase of 4 million miles traveled by trucks to 279 billion. That means the rate of large trucks involved in fatal crashes per 100 million miles traveled by trucks declined in 2014 by 6% to 1.34 from 1.43 in 2013.
FMCSA’s figures also show the number of truck- involved crash deaths have remained below 4,000 for five consecutive years and are down more than 25% from 10 years earlier.
“It is a tragedy whenever there is a fatality on our highways, but the trucking industry is pleased to see that it is a tragedy that fewer and fewer Americans are experiencing,” said Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations. “The number of crashes involving large trucks had fallen 39% since 2004, and while there is much more to do, that is a figure our professional drivers, our safety directors, our technicians and our safety partners in federal and state law enforcement can be proud of.”
Yet, the numbers from FMCSA’s report also point to room for improvement. The agency said the number of people injured in large truck crashes rose 16.8% to 111,000 in 2014, and the number of trucks involved in injury crashes rose 18.8% to 82,000.
There is no determination of who was at fault in these accidents, but statistics have long shown the driver of passenger vehicles involved is more often to have likely created the situation. When factoring in the crisis of distracted driving on our highways, that is more likely than ever.
FMCSA’s statistics also show the continued need to complete the ongoing safety regulations and legislation still working their way through government channels. Final decisions on electronic logging, speed limiters and new-entrant driver training will continue to make commercial drivers safer than ever. The safety systems on trucks and cars will help mitigate the severity of unavoidable highway crashes.
Likewise, tens of thousands of people will not become a statistics in this report in the years to come.
