- Trucking Accidents and Safety Standards
We know that almost 5,000 people are killed each year in big truck wrecks. In this part of Arkansas we have even more big truck wrecks due to the growth of our area and the nature of local businesses. Because of their size, crashes involving commercial trucks are devastating to pedestrians and occupants of smaller vehicles.
The consumer protection group Public Citizen works for improved oversight of our nation's commercial truck fleet; more consistent enforcement of current laws governing truck safety; and general consumer protection from dangers. We have found that the larger carriers have a much safer track record than the small operators. In a recent case, we found the fifth axle had no brakes at all and the steering column was held on to the universal joint with a radiator hose clamp and a bunge cord!
Unfortunately, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the agency created by Congress to improve the safety of commercial motor vehicles has not kept up with the deadlines that were set by Congress for a host of of vital safety standards. Public Citizen and other safety advocates sued the government to enforce these standards, some of which are more than a decade late, and won.
Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT) has a website filled with vital information. I urge everyone to support this group and make our highways safer.
Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Frank Bailey - You Can Help Prevent Unsafe Trucking
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Public Citizen and Chair and Founder of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, recently issued the following statement in response to an event by the Agricultural Transprotation Efficiency Coalition.
There is overwhelming scientific evidence showing that overweight trucks are more difficult to control, take longer to stop, are more likely to rollover in crashes and pose a serious safety threat to passenger vehicle occupants. Consequently, it is no surprise that large, heavy trucks are disproportionately responsible for motor vehicle deaths. Although big trucks are only 3 percent of U.S. registered vehicles, they are responsible for 13 percent of annual motor vehicle crash fatalities. When a car has a crash with a big truck, 98 percent of the people who die are in the smaller passenger vehicle.
Not only are American families paying the ultimate price for being forced to share the roads with oversized and overweight trucks, but their safety is also threatened by traveling on over-stressed and seriously compromised roads and bridges. One 80,000 pound tractor-trailer truck does as much damage to roads and bridges as 9,600 cars. Our highways and bridges are already buckling under levels of demand unforeseen by engineers who designed them. Simply put, bigger, heavier trucks are incompatible with the roads and bridges they use. Numerous federal and private sector studies have conclusively and convincingly shown that longer, heavier trucks operate with lower safety margins on both Interstate and lower class roads. Furthermore, heavy trucks do not pay their fair share for highway and bridge deterioration, causing the American public to subsidize the trucking industry’s greed.
The American public is well aware of the innate dangers of oversized trucks and the destruction they cause to our roads, and they do not want them to be even bigger. A recent public opinion poll by Lake Research Partners found that 66 percent oppose changing laws to allow larger trucks carrying heavier loads. More than 80 percent believe that trucks pulling two or three trailers are not as safe as single-trailer trucks. The survey also found that the strong opposition to bigger trucks transcends political party, gender, age, and region.
I urge Congress to listen to the American public and reject this proposal by special interest trucking and shipping industries."
I know in Arkansas we have needless truck crashes every week. I urge each of you who read this to contact your Represantives and tell them to put a stop to unsafe trucking.
Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Frank Bailey - New Roof Crush Tests: Volvo XC90 vs. Ford Explorer
Beginning in 1970, the auto industry fought efforts by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to issue a dynamic roof crush standard that protects occupants in rollover crashes. Why would the auto industry take such a position?
During that time, the number of deaths to occupants in rollover crashes climbed from 1,400 to over 10,000 each year while total occupant fatalities declined from 43,200 to 33,300. What accounts for that amazing increase in deaths from rollover crashes?
Although numerous federal courts have upheld the dolly rollover test as a reliable dynamic test, NHTSA has stuck with the ineffective, quasi-static roof crush standard issued in 1971 even though it initially was to be phased out by 1977.
In other major crash modes, front and side impacts, NHTSA has issued effective dynamic crash test standards that have reduced death and serious injury, but why not roof crush tests?
Public Citizen now has the results of dynamic roof crush tests on the Jordan Rollover System (JRS). The tests were sponsored by the Santo Family Foundation on a Volvo XC90s. State Farm donated the vehicle. This is one time that I applaud State Farm for doing something right.
Ford Motor Company (Stock at $3.11 today) has obtained Protective Orders in 24 courts prohibiting the public from seeing the test. Wonder why? Roof crush tests show Volvo XC90 occupants escape serious injury in multiple rollover crashes while Ford Explorer occupants suffer serious injury.
In a multiple two roll test, the maximum roof intrusion in the XC90 was only 2.6 inches and the peak roof intrusion velocity was less than 4 miles per hour. In contrast, the Explorer had maximum roof intrusion of 11.5 inches and peak roof intrusion velocity of nearly 12 miles per hours. This exceeds known thresh holds for death or serious injury.
Examination of actual accidents from NHTSA shows only one Volvo XC90 in a rollover crash. Like the XC90 in the JRS test, this Volvo had minimal roof intrusion and the two occupants suffered no serious injury. In sharp contrast, the NHTSA files revealed multiple cases of severe roof crush in other vehicles that tested poorly in the JRS.
After 35 years of increasing rollover fatalities due to weak roofs and weak standards, it is time to issue a dynamic roof crush standard using the JRS to match the lifesaving dynamic standards NHTSA has for front and side impacts.
Call or email your representative today and ask that they put aside their love for the auto industry and start putting the safety of their constituents first.
Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Frank Bailey - How Our Current Administration Loves Phthalates
According to a lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., and Public Citizen, Inc. against the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”), chemicals known as phthalates are used to soften plastics in children’s toys and other common consumer products. These chemicals are known to interfere with production of the hormone
