According to a 2006 report by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, about one in 20 professional truck drivers will be involved in an accident. The study also shows that there are roughly 141,000 truck crashes every year, and over one-half (77,000) of those were the direct fault of the truck driver.
The top ten causes of truck accidents are:
- Prescription Drug Use :: 26%
- Traveling Too Fast :: 23%
- Unfamiliar with Roadway :: 22%
- Over-the-counter Drug Use :: 18%
- Inadequate Surveillance :: 14%
- Fatigue :: 13%
- Illegal Maneuver :: 9%
- Exterior Distraction :: 8%
- Inadequate Evasive Action :: 7%
- Aggressive Driving Behavior :: 7%
TruthAboutTrucking.com reports that truck driving schools and trucking companies use a three minute video during their classes to show the dangers of drugs and driving. That site claims that this short video is basically useless and that there needs to be a continual reiteration of the facts to the drivers to reinforce the fact that medication and truck driving jobs just do not mix.
Source: "Top 10 Causes of Truck
Accidents" by Allen Smith, published at his TruthAboutTrucking blog. Thanks to Ken Shigley of the Atlanta Injury Law & Civil Litigation Blog for his post about this article.
