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Opinion: Even on Foot, Trucking Is Risky Business
By Jena Pratt
Research Investigator
SHARP Program
Department of Labor and Industries
State of Washington
This Opinion piece appears in the June 8 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The overall health of the trucking industry is vital to our economy, but research shows it’s still plagued by higher death and injury rates than many other industries — and not just as the result of highway collisions. Truckers need to be as careful on foot as they are behind the wheel.
As of 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 1.4 million truck transportation workers. And each year, one in 18 is injured or made ill by the job.
Trucking has an injury rate 30% higher than other U.S. industries, and on average, BLS reports, more than 500 truckers are killed on the job each year. In fact, truckers are six times more likely to be killed on the job than other workers.
We already know many trucking-related deaths are caused by highway collisions, but the 2007 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal
Occupational Injuries reported 42 deaths from “contact with objects and equipment,” making them second only to transportation incidents in frequency. In waste collection, for example, 28% of worker deaths are caused by contact with objects and equipment.
This is an often-overlooked area where prevention activities can and should be focused. Here are a few examples from claims in Washington state. Consider what might have been done to prevent these outside-the-truck injuries:
• A forklift driver whose view was obscured by his load placed 1,000 pounds of steel directly on top of a truck driver who was adjusting the dunnage on a flatbed, causing massive injuries to the trucker’s neck, back and hips.
• The tie-down bar slipped from a truck driver’s hand, breaking his cheekbone and crushing his sinuses and nerves.
• A dockworker was loading boxes when the top box fell on his shoulder,
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