Opportunities and Challenges for Improving Truck Safety on Our Highways

About 4,000 people are killed each year in truck crashes and nearly 100,000 are injured each year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), truck crash injuries increased by 40 percent from 2009 to 2012. There have been a lot of headlines lately; Tracy Morgan, the comedian, was seriously injured in a crash in early June involving a large truck, which also severely injured a Connecticut resident. Rule changes in 2013 were designed to prevent truck drivers from being forced to work too many hours, becoming exhausted and endangering themselves and other drivers on the road. They are a step in the right direction. As one 2005 study conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) demonstrated, under the old rules, 65 percent of drivers reported feeling drowsy while driving, and 48 percent admitted to falling asleep while driving at the same point during the previous year.