Letters to the Editor: Trucks, Cars, Crashes

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he March 27 headline loudly says: “New Study Faults Auto Drivers in 56% of Car-Truck Crashes.” (Click here for previous coverage.)

To be the devil’s advocate, we are all supposed to be professionals, so the correct headline should have read: “A Shameful 44% of All Truck-Car Crashes Are the Result of Truck-Driver Error.”

If the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s data are correct, these results are nothing to write home about.

Sure, we can rationalize it until the cows come home — the driver shortage, overworked and underpaid drivers, unreasonable delivery deadlines, ridiculous hours-of-service regulations, etc. But as an industry, we really have to do better than that.

Truck drivers are held to a higher standard when it comes to driving behavior. The professional driver must judge his or her own safety performance at all times.

The time-tested rule of preventable accidents is still very much a fact: It matters not whether you had the right of way or whether the other driver disobeyed traffic regulations. You are not concerned with conditions of the road or weather. As a professional driver, you must make allowances for all these factors. When you fail to make allowances and a crash occurs, you have failed to prevent the accident.

It is high time to remind all our drivers of their responsibilities in accident prevention.

André Perret

i>Fleet Safety Specialist

he Road-Scholar

amilton, Ontario

Regarding the article about auto drivers causing a higher percentage of car/truck crashes: This is confirmation of truck drivers being trained to avoid accidents — and also that there are many more autos on the road.

I would expect this result and, as truck drivers become more professional, I believe the ratio of auto-caused crashes will increase.

Winn Higginbotham

i>Marketing Manager

ully Transportation

uincy, Ill.

These letters appear in the April 3 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.