Editorial: Glowing in the Dark

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By the middle of 2001, all truck trailers will glow in the dark as the result of a federal mandate, in a bid to reduce side-impact accidents between cars and trucks.

While all new trailers come equipped with side reflectors and reflective tape, the Department of Transportation has ruled that all older trailers still on the road will have to be retrofitted with tape by June 1, 2001.

The use of glow-in-the-dark tape is a worthy effort to reduce accidents where cars run into the sides of trucks. By making the trailers more visible at night, the expectation is that drivers will be able to spot them much sooner in their headlights.

From 1988 through 1994, an average of 37 motorists died each year in side under-ride accidents, according to statistics prepared by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Some truckers have resisted the retrofitting of their trailers, arguing that the costs involved —which are substantial — don’t justify the benefits the program will bring.

DOT officials brushed aside that argument, and the program will now proceed, department officials announced late in March.

Perhaps now is the time for those same DOT officials to take a stand on a related, and unresolved, safety issue: namely, the use of similar reflective tape on railroad cars.

From 1981 to 1998, almost 11,000 people were killed in railroad grade crossing accidents, an average of 608 a year. And, on average, 25% of grade crossing accidents involve motorists running into the sides of trains, according to a study prepared by DOT.

Thus, about 150 motorists have been dying each year when they inadvertently smack into the sides of moving or parked trains, presumably because they are unable to see them. This fatality rate is more than four times higher than that in accidents involving cars and trucks.

Previous tests have shown that the use of reflective tape sharply increases the ability of motorists to detect rail cars, even when the tape has gotten dirty or when the weather is rainy or foggy.

If the use of reflective tape on truck trailers makes sense — and we agree that it does — then how can DOT officials fail to mandate its use on railroad cars?