18 Wheels and Countless Dangers
18 Wheels and Countless Dangers
September 17, 2006
By Gregg Jones, Holly Becka, Jennifer LaFleur and Steve McGonigle / The Dallas Morning News
Trucking
companies often put non-English speakers, felons,
addicts in driver's seat, but rarely take blame
in fatal crashes.
When accidents occur, trucking companies
defend their drivers and often blame the other
vehicles – and in many cases the dead occupants
– regardless of the evidence. They typically
fight any release of information about their drivers
and vehicles, and wage protracted legal battles
to avoid blame.
More than 5,200 people died in accidents
involving large trucks in the U.S. last year –
502 in Texas. The state consistently leads the
nation in fatalities, in part because it has more
roadway miles and the second highest number of
registered trucks.
The state's fatality rate, measured
in truck crash deaths per 100,000 people, was
24th nationwide. California, the only state whose
volume of truck traffic exceeds Texas, ranked
No. 38. Another 10,000 people, on average, are
injured in Texas each year in crashes involving
big trucks. Responsibility for these accidents
is hotly contested; Texas
Department of Public Safety DPS investigators
typically don't assess blame. Even the department's
database refers only to "contributing factors"
not "cause."
The most comprehensive national
study, released in March by the U.S.
Department of Transportation, found that truck
drivers were at fault in at least 44 percent of
all accidents between cars and big trucks. The
American
Trucking Associations, which represents the
industry's biggest companies, says trucks cause
only about 25 percent of fatal accidents involving
cars. When trucking companies are to blame, records
show, it's because truckers drive too fast, don't
pay attention, work too many hours or take to
the road in poorly maintained equipment –
sometimes with the knowledge and encouragement
of their employers.
Many Texas trucking companies and
their drivers also flout safety laws with little
fear of punishment. Only about 1,000 of the state's
more than 64,000 registered trucking companies
faced compliance reviews last year. And only about
37 percent of the trucks inspected in Texas last
year underwent the most thorough inspection, known
as a Level 1. The majority of those were done
on Mexican trucks that travel only a few miles
north of the border before returning home.
Nationwide, the rates of fatal crashes
and fatalities have declined about 24 percent
in the last decade, in part because of rising
seat-belt usage and safety innovations, such as
airbags and anti-lock brakes. But the number of
deaths in large-truck accidents is about the same
as it was in 1994 because more trucks are on the
road, driving more miles than ever.
In Texas, the number of intrastate
carriers increased 43 percent in the past five
years, with a similar increase in the number of
interstate carriers based here. The number of
registered large trucks in the U.S. increased
24 percent from 1994 to 2004. Business is so good,
in fact, that U.S. trucking companies reported
a record year in 2005: They generated $623 billion
in revenue while hauling nearly 70 percent of
the nation's freight.
To read more of this 3-part article,
please click
here to download a PDF.
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