Editorial: Why Do Trucks Crash?

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e’re glad to see the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to further explore the results of its new crash-causation study.

The study, released late last month, found that the car or car driver was found to be the primary cause in 56% of car-truck collisions.

Last week, FMCSA said that as a result of the study it was going to dig deeper into the role that legal drug use, speed and hours-of-service rules may play in these crashes.

The study found that in 28.7% of the crashes it examined, the truck driver had taken prescription drugs, which were determined to be an “associated factor” in the crash. Another 19.4% had taken over-the-counter medications that were also found to be an “associated factor.” These two categories add up to more than 48%, a number too high to ignore.

It wasn’t much different in cars. For auto drivers, the study found 33.9% were taking prescription drugs and 10.3% were taking over-the counter drugs.

These “associated factors” may or may not have contributed to the accident, the study said. Now, FMCSA apparently is going to explore the issue more closely to get a better idea of any role that legal drugs may have played in the wrecks.

Also, the crash study found that truck driver fatigue was an associated factor in 7.5% of the crashes, while the car driver was found to be fatigued 14.7% of the time, nearly twice as often.

When the study was conducted — between 2001 and 2003 — truck drivers were allowed to drive for 10 hours in a 15-hour period and were only required to have eight hours of off-duty time between shifts. The current hours rule allows 11 hours of driving time within a 14-hour work day, but it also requires 10 hours of off-duty time.

In addition to looking at drugs and fatigue, we encourage FMCSA to look more broadly at how auto drivers behave near trucks, especially with regard to speeding and following too closely.

It is appropriate to examine how truck drivers handle their rigs. But not studying auto driver behavior — especially since the car or car driver is more often than not the cause of any car-truck crash — would surely be less than half a loaf.

We encourage FMCSA to use its new study to help us get to the root causes of accidents, and to help us develop strategies and rules to improve highway safety.

This editorial appears in the April 3 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.