Articles Posted in Truck Accidents

Medically unfit CDL drivers can cause dangerous bus and truck accidents putting innocent people at risk of serious personal injury or death. Even though commercial bus and truck drivers are required to take a medical test every two years, the actual rules are too loose and open the door to all types of abuses. For example the terrible accident between a truck and a school bus that happened in New Jersey last year was caused by a medically unfit school bus driver (see our previous post).

To prevent such tragedy from happening again, starting May 21st, all bus and truck drivers will be required to be examined only by a Certified Medical Examiner. Certified Medical Examiners have been specifically trained and successfully passed a test that qualifies them to assess if a CDL driver is medically fit to perform his job. The FMCSA maintains a map of Registered Medical Examiners that drivers can use to find a nearby examiner.

This new system will help prevent fraud and set the stage for the next step in which the medical record will be electronically accessible and automatically integrated to the driver’s motor vehicle record.

35% of all truck drivers who die in a truck accident test positive for alcohol or illegal drugs according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Out of this 35%, Alcohol and Marijuana represent 13% , cocaine 9%, amphetamines and methamphetamine’s 7%, other stimulants 5%, PCP and codeine less than 1%.

To reduce these types of accidents the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed the establishment of the Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, a database under the Agency’s administration that will contain controlled substances (drug) and alcohol test result information for the holders of commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). The FMCSA is now accepting comments on the proposal until April 21st. Click here to read the proposal and add your personal comments

Drunk driving is at the origin of the accident between a truck and a bus that led to the death of the bus driver last week in the meatpacking district of New York. Model Tyson Beckford’s nephew was so drunk that he was kicked out of several venues in downtown New York before he stole a delivery truck parked with the keys inside. He crashed into several parked cars before he ran the red light at the intersection of West 14th Street and Seventh Ave and slammed into an MTA bus. The driver, William Pena who was not wearing a seat belt was ejected and died at the scene. A scooter driver, a food cart vendor and his customer as well as a bus passenger suffered personal injury.

Read more in the New York Post

Unsafe commercial carriers are the cause of many truck accidents and must be kept off the road. For this purpose the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration launched in 2010 the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) enforcement program that includes as its main component a tool called the Safety Measurement System (SMS). The CSA and SMS goal was to identify and prioritize motor carriers that pose the highest threat to public safety for enforcement interventions.

At the beginning of this week a study from the Government Accountability Office announced that even though the CSA program was a success, improvement was needed. The watchdog agency was especially worried that the insufficient amount of data obtained from small commercial carriers was not good enough for reliable statistics. The American Trucking Association had previously voiced the same type of warnings.

The FMCSA fought back and came up two days ago with a new study conducted by the Volpe Center, the research arm of the U.S. Transportation Department that confirms CSA effectiveness. Researchers used pre-SMS historical data and to test the system. According to the research, “results show that the companies the SMS would have identified for interventions, such as roadside inspections, warning letters and on-site investigations, had a future crash rate of more than double the national average,” FMCSA said. “In addition, 79% of the carriers that SMS would have ranked as high risk in at least one of the seven safety categories it monitors, had higher future crash rates compared to those it would not have identified”.

To avoid truck accidents during the winter, it is essential that truck drivers know how to deal with skids. Skids occur usually on snowy or icy roads. Excessive speed, over braking, over steering, over acceleration are the main reason why a truck may skid. Therefore the best thing to do to avoid skids is to do everything smoothly and gently.

Another winter danger for truck drivers are the exhausts systems: exhausts leeks entering the cab can be deadly. Hundreds of truck drivers die every year in the USA of carbon monoxide poisoning.

To learn more on how truck drivers can deal with these winter related issues and avoid accidents check out the following video.