AAJ Issues Report About Unsafe Trucks on U.S. Roads

The American Association for Justice has issued a report called "Warning!  Safety Violation Ahead."  The report reveals that "a new analysis of government data reveals that more than 28,000 motor carrier companies, representing more than 200,000 trucks, are currently operating in violation of federal safety laws."    The safety violations include "defective brakes, bad tires, loads that dangerously exceeded weight limits and drivers with little or no training or drug and alcohol dependencies."   The accompanying press release indicates that

AAJ obtained data on the safety performance of U.S. trucking companies through the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS), which is maintained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).  Over a million lines of data were analyzed in an effort to pinpoint just how many unsafe trucks might be on the road.

Tennessee had 107 fatalies involving large trucks in 2007.  The country as a whole had 4808 fatalities and 142,949 non-fatal crashes involving large trucks.  You can access the national database by clicking here.   You can reach the Tennessee database by clicking here.  Trucking companies are listed by city.

 

 

Dangers Caused By Truck Drivers Who Text While Driving.

Texting while driving is now illegal in Tennessee, and a study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute reaffirms why the law is necessary.


For truck drivers, the risk of a crash or near-crash event increases by a 23.2 times as compared with non-distracted driving.

Read the entire study here.

UPDATE:  here is a story on the study in The Washington Post:   An excerpt:

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration awarded a $300,000 contract to Virginia Tech to do the study. Trucks were fitted with video cameras that captured the drivers' faces in the six seconds leading up to and during a crash or a near miss. The video showed texting to be an extremely high-risk behavior, mainly because it is associated with drivers taking their eyes off the road.

"In 4.6 out of the six seconds, they weren't looking at the road. They were looking at the device," said Rich Hanowski, director of the institute's Center for Truck and Bus Safety. "Anything over two seconds is dangerous."