Truck Safety

Good Accident Attorneys and Accident Lawyers have always known that safety is the purpose of tort law.  They know that truck crashes, semi tractor-trailer highway accidents, motorcycle accidents, automobile accidents, large truck crashes and construction accidents can have devastating effects on Hoosier families.  Those affects can be the loss of income and medical bills from injuries such as broken bones, spinal cord injuries resulting in paralysis such as paraplegia and quadriplegia, brain injury, burns, amputations and back injury.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) knows that safety is crucial to the bottom line of companies and for the health of America’s working class.  The FMSCA has issued its opinions on safety.  The following is a part of its safety statistics.

Why “Safety is Good Business”?

Crashes are devastating in terms of fatalities and injuries, financial costs, damaged reputations, the inability to attract and retain good drivers, and general goodwill in the industry and community.

• In 2005, there were 5,212 fatalities and 91,993 injuries from large truck crashes, and 335 fatalities and 14,283 injuries from bus crashes.
• The average cost of a large truck crash involving a fatality is $3.6 million per crash.
• A crash with injuries costs almost $200,000 per crash.
• The average cost of all large truck crashes is about $91,000 per crash.

Young and Young keeps tabs on the publications of the FMSCA to keep pace with safety developments.  We do this to stay on the front line in our fight to promote safety.  We also do this because when the system fails in its initial purpose, i.e. accident and injury prevention, we have the tools and the evidence necessary to insure Hoosiers are properly compensated for the injuries caused by negligent persons.  I leave you now on an up note, Crashes are preventable.

The good news is that many crashes are preventable. For example:

• In 1997, 22% of large truck fatal crashes involving more than one vehicle were speeding related (Speeding Study).
• In 2003, about 2% of drivers with a commercial driver’s license (CDL) used controlled substances, and 0.2% used alcohol (0.04 or higher blood alcohol content) while performing their duties  (Drug and Alcohol Survey).
• 5.5% of fatal truck crashes are caused by driver fatigue (Hours of Service News Release).  
• A 2006 study found that only 59% of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers wear safety belts. In 2005, of the 696 CMV drivers who died in truck crashes, 344 were not wearing safety belts (Safety Belt Studies).
• Research has shown that there is a significant relationship between driver job change rate (turnover) and crash involvement (Driver Retention).