WASHINGTON — After reviewing the latest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) traffic fatality report issued on Monday, April 1, Truck Safety Coalition (TSC) Board President Tami Friedrich took immediate note.
She called the more than 5,900 lives lost in large truck crashes in 2022 unacceptable, adding that on U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg must act now.
“I call on Secretary Buttigieg to take action and urgently proceed with rulemaking to require the use of speed limiters and automatic emergency braking in large trucks as soon as possible,” Friedrich said. “No one else needs to die because of bureaucratic inaction.”
NHTSA reports that 5,936 people, including truck drivers, died in truck crashes in 2022 and over 160,000 were injured.
This represents a 75% increase in truck crash fatalities since 2009.
Despite passenger vehicles being safer than ever, 97% of fatalities occur to passenger vehicle occupants in large truck crashes, according to the TSC.
TSC urges the following steps as a starting point to address this crisis:
- Require automatic emergency braking and advanced driver assistance systems on all commercial motor vehicles (CMVs)
- Expeditiously complete proposed rulemaking compelling the use of speed limiters in all CMVs
- Require rear and side underride guards on all CMVs
“DOT must raise the commercial motor carrier minimum insurance requirements as outlined in H.R. 6884, the Fair Compensation for Truck Crash Victims Act,” a TSC news release states. (The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) FMCSA must initiate rulemaking requiring a New Entrant Knowledge Test for new motor carriers to demonstrate they comprehend critical rules and regulations to safely operate CMVs (commercial motor vehicles) in interstate commerce.”
Additionally, according to the TSC, existing safety measures must be protected, and industry-friendly rollbacks must be resisted, such as removing any requirements for direct supervision of commercial learner’s permit drivers who lack experience driving dangerous large trucks
“Shockingly, amid this truck crash fatality crisis, FMCSA is proposing to roll back safety standards under the guise of flexibility for carriers,” according to the TSC news release. “The proposed changes have a clear negative impact on safety, which the agency fails to even attempt to assess in its analysis. Secretary Buttigieg calls the reality of today’s roadway crisis ‘unacceptable.’ Yet, FMCSA is moving forward with unacceptable proposals that weaken and compromise existing safety regulations.”
Parents Against Tired Truckers Board Co-Chair Russ Swift said in a statement that the latest statistics involving deaths and large trucks are “deeply disturbing.”
“These crashes won’t go away on their own, we need our public officials to show courage and put the needs of the public above the interests of large trucking companies,” he concluded.
Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and raised in East Texas, John Worthen returned to his home state to attend college in 1998 and decided to make his life in The Natural State. Worthen is a 20-year veteran of the journalism industry and has covered just about every topic there is. He has a passion for writing and telling stories. He has worked as a beat reporter and bureau chief for a statewide newspaper and as managing editor of a regional newspaper in Arkansas. Additionally, Worthen has been a prolific freelance journalist for two decades, and has been published in several travel magazines and on travel websites.
it’s obvious that these people that are so called lawmakers? have no earthly idea of what it takes to get these big rigs up and down the highway,
worst thing invented were these emergency automatic brakes ?
in the winter when it freezes? last thing anyone would want, is for your brakes, to be automatically applied? I’ve been running these big rigs for 35 years and by the Grace of Almighty God, I’ve never had an accident, problem nowadays, my opinion is inexperienced drivers, out of school for a few weeks and then put out on the highway and byways, of this country .
It couldn’t be perhaps the mandate of electronic logs…Now we’ve got drivers out there having to drive faster to make up time lost at shippers/receivers. That’s gonna cause quite a few accidents.
Drivers lack of knowledge and skills are the major issue.
It is too easy to become a driver.
I’m curious as to how many fatalities accrued in accidents not involving trucks and those caused by the automobiles. are they going to put speed limiters on cars SUVs and pick ups? I personally think it’s all about the control. our leaders want absolute control. seems like
Djordje,I don t know if you drive a truck,it s obvious that you lack experience if you do.
I ve seen cars asking(by the way they recklessly drive their cars) for an accident,truck drivers,experienced or non,have to compensate,eat crow,their blood pressures surges just to avoid hitting the reckless stupid drivers.
While getting a CDL may be easy for some,is not so for others.
I ve driven well over 3mill accident free and I wouldn t pin the blame on truck drivers,the new ones have the fear and respect of such a huge vehicle that they have to drive safely to make a good living,old hands like me still have to make a living,we aim to be safe,we all want to go home and make money.
So,no,the majority of truck drivers are safer than the safest car driver,they have to be or they won t last.
all these rules that will make a driver shortage, where do they think this money is coming from,we put so much money out where is the profit, do the math if you don’t have CDL
When any of these Truck Saftey people present a plan to address the increasingly reckless and distracted general motoring public, that’s the day I’ll take what they say seriously. Until now, they trade on pain and fear to accomplish whatever anti trucking agenda item they fell like pursuing.
Do they back any industry efforts to get actual meaningful training standards? No
Do they back drivers efforts to enforce NLRB recommendations on wage theft or treating drivers like human beings instead of a readily replaceable commodity? No
They support all the technology, like driver assistance systems, that companies use as an excuse to lower the entry-level training threshold.