Facts on Truck Safety and Bigger Trucks

Michael Monheit, Esquire of Monheit Law, P.C.

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Email: Michael Monheit

Source of this story

The trucking industry is proposing to operate bigger trucks on public roads. These trucks (lcv's or longer combination vehicles) are dangerous because they are less stable and more awkward to control. They can be as long as a ten story building is high and have two to three trailers. Truck drivers call triple trailer trucks "wiggle wagons" because the rear trailer sways back and forth even on a straight road with no wind.

Pressure is building under the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) process to start increasing the size of trucks on selected north-south highways. Once the industry has its foot in the door on these corridors, there will be no turning back. Then shippers and trucking companies will lobby to allow even bigger trucks on more roads.

In 1995, there were 578 persons killed in crashes involving large trucks in Canada. Another 12,057 were injured.

Moving freight by truck is 7.5 times more dangerous than moving it by rail

Allowing longer combination vehicles increases the risk of jack-knife, roll-over, sway, and loss of control.

Short (two 28 foot trailers) double trailer trucks in Ontario make up about 6.1% of trailer trucks in Ontario, but are involved in 20.3% of fatal combination truck accidents, making them far more accident prone than single trailer trucks 3 This danger would increase if longer double trailer trucks are allowed.

Seniors are most at risk from collisions with big trucks. Americans over 65 are involved in fatal accidents with heavy trucks three times as often as drivers aged 16-64.4

In a collision between a car and a tractor-trailer truck, the car occupants are 29 times more likely to be killed. The threat to car occupants from the impact of a collision increases if the car collides with a longer combination vehicle. The probability of death and injury increases with truck weight.

24% of Canadian big trucks examined in the June 1998 Roadside safety inspections were ordered out of service for mechanical defects.

Many ramps and urban intersections were not designed to handle bigger trucks. When they turn at low speed, bigger trucks "off-track" to the inside which can cause the truck to climb over curbs, take out signs, and potentially run over cyclists or pedestrians. When they turn at high speed, bigger trucks "off-track" to the outside which means they can swing into an adjacent lane unexpectedly and hit a car.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board found that driver fatigue is a probable factor in 20-40% of truck crashes.

LCV's would help trucking companies shift traffic from rail to truck This means more congestion, accidents, pollution and road damage. According to work for the National Transportation Act Review Commission, even a small shift from rail to truck can significantly increase pollution emissions from freight transport.

A tractor-trailer truck does as much damage to the public road as 9,600 cars for every kilometre driven.

A typical tractor-trailer driven 100,000 kilometres a year receives a road subsidy of $10,000.

Big trucks in Canada are subsidized $2.82 billion annually by the public ($450 million public road costs not covered by fuel taxes and licenses, $2.37 billion accident and pollution costs). 7

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