Concerned with the heavy toll from crashes involving tractor-trailers, a group of safety advocates want the incoming Biden administration to force owners and operators of heavy-duty trucks to deploy new safety equipment.
“We cannot wait and allow another 20K truck crash deaths & 600K injuries in the next 4 years when solutions are at hand. President-elect Biden we need strong leaders at NHTSA and FMCSA,” the Truck Safety Coalition tweeted just before Christmas.
It also sent a letter to the President-elect asking the new administration to mandate crash avoidance technologies like automatic braking become standard equipment on new trucks. Crash avoidance systems are currently available on passenger cars.
(As Biden’s new Transportation chief, “Mayor Pete” will face massive list of automotive challenges.)
As part of its campaign, the Truck Safety Coalition is also calling on the incoming Biden administration to fill key posts at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, or NHTSA, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, with regulators committed to safety and who are free of connections to the trucking industry.
The push by the coalition – hoping to mimic the impact of advocacy groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which became a major voice on issues related to traffic safety back in the 1980s – is made up of volunteers, many of whom had loved ones killed or injured in accidents with trucks.
The group notes the technology – such as automatic braking – is already available and relatively inexpensive when measured against the benefits. It notes 13 people die and more than 400 are injured each day in car-truck crashes around the U.S.
(Acting NHTSA chief confirms departure from safety agency.)
“Truck crash victims and safety advocates urge President-elect Biden to combat rising death toll by appointing strong leaders to DOT safety regulatory agencies not tied to industry. Overdue & ignored safety actions needed now,” the group tweeted.
Biden’s own wife and daughter were killed in a car truck collision almost half a century ago.
The Trump administration had taken several steps to ease regulations on the trucking industry. One of the biggest steps – and one of the most controversial – increased the number of hours drivers could remain behind the wheel before they had to take mandatory rest breaks.
The change to hours of service is being challenged in federal court by a coalition of traffic-safety advocates.
(Waymo, Daimler teaming up to develop autonomous tech on Class 8 trucks.)
The problems related to trucking safety and regulation will be among the issues that will be handled by Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, whom Biden has nominated to serve as U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
It is way past time for FMCSA and NHTSA to take some serious steps to cut down on fatal and catastrophically injurious truck crashes. Safety is supposed to be the highest priority for the FMCSA and NHTSA, but trucking is the only mode of transport that continues to kill the same number or more people every year. These deaths and catastrophic injuries don’t have to happen. Imagine the difference if all commercial truck were to be equipped with Automatic Emergency Braking… And what about increasing the minimum amount of insurance required that motor carriers carry? Congress set the minimum amount in 1980, and directed the Secretary of Transportation to figure out the right amount, but the amount has never been changed. With the limits so low, unsafe motor carriers can buy policies with effectively zero underwriting to examine whether they are safe.
Dear Editor,
I am writing on behalf of the Truck Safety Coalition to request a correction to a typo in Joe Szczesny’s news report published Dec 31. In the middle of the article, the Truck Safety Coalition was referred to as the Traffic Safety Coalition. Would you be so kind as to make this correction? Here is the portion of the story that we are referring to: “As part of its campaign, the Traffic Safety Coalition is also calling on the incoming Biden administration to fill key posts at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, or NHTSA, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, with regulators committed to safety and who are free of connections to the trucking industry.”
Many thanks and Happy 2021.
Bill Bronrott
202-270-4415
That’s been corrected, Bill, as I mentioned in my reply to your email.
Paul E.
I have taken the step to present a Petition For Rule Making to NHTSA to include a new universal vehicle safety standard to include a Zone of Illumination added into FMVSS 108. Allowing vehicle drivers the right to SEE opened vehicle doors at night even with a person outside that opened vehicle door is now possible with added Zones of Illumination.
We can all work together to do better.