Thousands Die Annually in Car Accidents Caused by Unsafe Trucks

In 2002, a woman and her family were returning from a holiday shopping trip on a Texas state highway when an oncoming 18-wheel truck carrying a trailer load of sand crossed the road’s center line and collided with her SUV. The woman, her 14-year-old son, 70-year-old mother, and 17-year-old daughter, pregnant with twins, were all killed in this horrible truck accident. Her daughter’s 14-month-old son was the only survivor. The driver of the truck, an illegal immigrant, had used a fake social security number to get a commercial driving license, and had a history of arrests and truck safety violations. After the crash, the truck driver admitted to his employers, that he had entered the U.S. illegally, had exaggerated his truck-driving experience, and had a fake social security number. Despite all this, the trucking company allowed him to drive for another18 months.

In 2007, the father of two daughters was killed in Detroit when his car was struck by a fully loaded, 75-ton gravel truck whose driver had lost control. In this terrible car accident, the truck driver, who had been suffering from a seizure disorder, was taking the powerful epilepsy drug Tegretol, a medication known to cause drowsiness and delayed reaction time. The truck driver later admitted that he had received no formal training from his employer, and that he had failed to inspect the truck’s tires and brakes.

In 2008, a bus carrying 55 Vietnamese-American Catholics to a religious festival blew a tire and crashed, killing 17 people. The blown tire had been retreaded, in violation of federal safety standards. In looking into this tragic bus accident, it was discovered that the bus company had been awaiting approval for a federal license. Its incorporation papers would later show that it had the same owner and address as another company that had been compelled to take its vehicles off the road after numerous safety violations. The case underscored a disturbing trend: Companies found in violation of safety standards often just change their names and continue operating. A 2009 GAO report found that more than 1,000 trucking companies had followed this procedure.

Truck Accidents Kill 4,000 and Injure 80,000 Annually

The fact is most of the 30 million Americans traveling the nation’s roads and highways are unaware of a most troubling statistic: They’re sharing the road with over 200,000 unsafe trucks.

According to a recent report released by the American Association for Justice, there were more than 28,000 trucking companies, representing more than 200,000 trucks operating on U.S. roads with safety violations. This represents a huge potential for truck accidents. Among the most egregious were defective brakes, bad tires, loads that dangerously exceeded weight limits, and drivers with little or no training or drug and alcohol dependencies. Some trucking companies even had salary systems that encourage truck drivers to exceed speed limits and maximum driving hours.

These alarming statistics highlight an increasingly dangerous problem for motorists and truckers alike: While trucks make up less than four percent of all passenger vehicles on U.S. roads, they are involved in 12% of all motor vehicle fatalities. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, more than 4,000 people are killed annually in collisions with trucks and another 80,000 are seriously injured. The likelihood of motorists sustaining a personal injury or being killed in a collision with an unsafe truck are disturbingly high. In 2007, 143,000 large trucks were involved in non-fatal crashes. Regrettably, many of these truck accidents could be prevented if trucking companies would simply comply with safety standards instead of cutting corners to boost profits.

More Than One in Five Trucks Failed Announced Safety Inspections

In June 2009, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance conducted comprehensive roadside inspections across the U.S. The trucking industry was given four months advance notice of these inspections, so companies had ample warning to fix potential problems. Still, 22.2% of trucks failed inspection and were taken out of service. States with the highest rate of federal safety violations were West Virginia, North Dakota, Nebraska, Vermont and Iowa.