Trucking firms highlight new technology, driver safety programs in light of media scrutiny

After articles in The New York Times and The Dallas Morning News this fall about trucking safety and oversight, the Truckload Carriers Association accused the media of recklessly portraying the embattled industry.

Driving trucks remains one of the most dangerous occupations in America, and the number of crashes involving tractor-trailers has steadily risen from 109,530 in 2001 to more than 144,000 in 2005. That year, 5,212 people were killed in truck crashes and close to 92,000 were injured, according to federal statistics.

Nearly a fifth of the fatalities in 2005 – 993 – were truck drivers, who have an occupational fatality rate of 29.3 for every 100,000 employed. Despite the numbers, the Bush administration loosened federal trucking regulations late that year, allowing truckers to spend up to 11 hours on the road each day.

Representatives from local trucking firms said those facts and the scrutiny they often receive underscores the importance of programs they have instituted to keep their drivers – and other motorists traveling the nation’s highways – safe.

“Carriers are looking at whatever they can do to help improve safety,” said Ron Breau, vice president of the Missouri Motor Carriers Association.

Trucking technology

Prime Inc. rigs are equipped with a variety of technological features that have helped lower the Springfield-based trucking firm’s accident rate, said Don Lacy, director of safety and recruiting.

“We’re basically self-insured,” he said. “Anything we can to do lower our rates, we’re going to do. It’s good business.”

Prime had 0.52 accidents per million miles traveled in 2005, down from 0.76 accidents per million miles traveled a decade ago.

Prime bought the second generation of Vehicle On-board Radar, or VORAD, for its 2,600-truck fleet. The system detects objects in a truck’s blind spots and warns drivers if they’re following too closely, Lacy said.

Prime’s Freightliner rigs have had rollover stability control since 2005. The technology senses a truck’s pitch and automatically applies brakes to prevent rollovers, Lacy said.

In March, Prime announced it would outfit its fleet with lane departure warning, or LDW, systems manufactured by California-based Iteris Inc.

LDW is designed to prevent trucking accidents caused by sideswipes, leaving the road or inadvertent lane changes usually caused by driver drowsiness, fatigue or distraction, according to the company. The system’s windshield-mounted camera tracks lane markings and emits a warning if a rig strays without a turn signal, Lacy said.

By August 2006, 35 commercial fleets comprising 18,600 trucks nationally were using Iteris’ LDW system and another 52 fleets were conducting field tests, according to the company’s Web site.

Driver training has also taken a technological turn in recent years with the growing popularity of online courses, said Stan Kasterke, director of safety and risk management for Strafford-based TCSI/Transland. Each month, Transland buys lessons of an online computer-based training system called Tread-1, Kasterke said.

“More and more of our drivers are becoming computer-savvy,” he said. “More and more of our guys are getting laptops.”

Kasterke said Transland soon will offer podcasts of its quarterly safety meetings, one of which recently involved input from the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Educating the public

Transland and other trucking firms also are taking steps to educate noncommercial motorists about the importance of driving safely around tractor-trailers.

“We have got to get out to the motoring public that we are not an adversary,” Kasterke said.

In its defense, the Truckload Carriers Association has pointed to a study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety that suggests passenger vehicles often contribute to fatal crashes involving tractor-trailers. The study found that police assigned at least one unsafe driving factor to passenger-vehicle drivers and none to truck drivers in 73 percent of fatal crashes.

Richard Davis, a civil defense attorney with Whiteaker & Wilson PC in Springfield, said his firm has seen a decline in the number of trucking accident cases over the past five years. Davis typically represents a trucking firm’s insurance company when an accident involving one of its drivers results in a lawsuit.

Circumstances in trucking accidents – inattention, carelessness and fatigue – aren’t all that different from other motor-vehicle crashes, yet more attention is paid to accidents involving tractor-trailers, Davis said.

Insurance accounts for about 3 percent of a trucking firm’s operating costs, according to the Missouri Motor Carriers Association. Those costs are even higher when a firm’s drivers are ticketed or involved in crashes.

Breau said the association’s Council of Safety Supervisors offers educational and training opportunities for its members.[[In-content Ad]]