Category Archives: Truck Accidents

Teens Texting, Calling And Driving Is A Scary Combination

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A new Pew Research Report reveals that up to 50% of teen drivers admit to texting and talking on their cell phones while driving.

According to the study by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C, which surveyed 800 teens up to age 17:

• 75 percent of teens have a cellphone, and more than half of them say they have talked on their cellphone while driving.

• 40 percent say they have been in a car when the driver used a cellphone “in a way that put themselves or others in danger.”

• 48 percent of teens say they have been in a car when the driver was texting.

• More than one-third of teens ages 16 or 17 who text say they have texted while driving.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski already has gone on record with his concerns. “Distracted driving endangers life and property and the current levels of injury and loss are unacceptable,” he sold a U.S. Senate committee last month.

He cited a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report in 2008 that said driver distraction is the cause of 16 percent of all fatal crashes, which translates to 5,800 people killed, and 21 percent of crashes that result in an injury, which is 515,000 people.

As I previously wrote, the U.S. Senate is now considering a bill that would completely ban texting while driving. I don’t t think that legislation could come soon enough. The statistics do not lie and apparently teens drivers do not view this as a dangerous activity.

To read the complete article from the Seattle Times, click here.

If you or someone you know has been involved in a car accident or truck accident, then contact attorney Aaron Bryant for a free consultation at 312-588-3384.

Highway Deaths At Record Low In First Half Of 2009

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ABC News recently reported that there was a sharp decline in highway deaths in the first half of 2009.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported Friday that 16,626 people died in traffic crashes between January and the end of June, a 7 percent decline from the same period last year. It followed up on a record low number of deaths achieved for that period in 2008, when an estimated 37,261 motorists died, the fewest since 1961.

The recession is probably the biggest contributor but it’s not the only contributor,” said Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies.

Highway safety officials also reported a decline in the fatality rate, the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. It fell to 1.15 during the first half of 2009, compared with a record low — at the time — of 1.27 in 2008.

Harsha and others noted that seat belt use has climbed to an all-time high, many new vehicles offer safety-enhancing side air bags and anti-rollover technologies and authorities have stepped up enforcement of drunk driving laws.

Seat belt use climbed to 84 percent in 2009, helped by many states allowing police to stop a vehicle for a seat belt violation, even if this is the only violation the officers notice.

To read the entire story at ABC News, click here.

If you look closely, I mean very closely, a few positive things have come about as a result of the recent recession. Hopefully this trend in highway safety continues even as the economy recovers.

If you or someone you know has been involved in an auto accident or a truck accident, then call attorney Aaron Bryant for a free consultation at 312-588-3384.

New Law May Require Truckers Take Extra Hour Of Rest

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CBS Radio 780 in Chicago recently reported that the Federal Government is looking to require truck drivers take an extra hour of rest while on the road. 

Every year in the U.S. some 700 people are killed and 20,000 others are injured in big rig accidents. Many of them, like the crash in Round Lake, are caused by truckers asleep, or wasted by fatigue.

It also caused the 1999 Bourbonnais Amtrak derailment that killed 11 and injured more than 100 people.

Soon, the federal Department of Transportation is expected to require truckers to stop and rest after 10 hours of driving. Now, they can go 11 hours without sleep.

Truck driver Terrance Shumake conceded, “You do have a lot of guys with the paper logs and they do fudge the log books.”

It will be interested to see if the Obama administration will make increased truck driver safety regulations a priority. Based on the statistics, it appears that this is an idea that should be looked at closely by lawmakers.

To read the entire story, click here.  

If you or someone you know has been involved in a trucking accident or car accident, then call attorney Aaron Bryant for a free consultation at 312-588-3384.

Study Shows In Cab Computers Are Distraction To Truck Drivers

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The New York Times recently reported on the use of computers by truck drivers while on the road. Truck drivers remain adamant that their use of computers are not a distraction and provide less of a hindrance than the use of cell phones or Blackberrys. 

“We think that’s overkill,” Clayton Boyce, spokesman for the American Trucking Associations, said of a federal bill that would force states to ban texting while driving if they want to keep receiving federal highway money.  Mr. Boyce, who said the industry does not condone texting while driving, said computers used by truckers require less concentration than phones. The trucks “have a screen that has maybe two or four or six lines” of text, he said. “And they’re not reading the screen every second.”  Banning the use of such devices, he added, “won’t improve safety.”

Safety experts have an opposing view and are determined to include computers in trucks in the texting ban. After videotaping truckers behind the wheel, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that those who used on-board computers faced a 10 times greater risk of crashing, nearly crashing or wandering from their lane than truckers who did not use those devices. That figure is lower than the 23 times greater risk when truckers texted, compared with drivers simply focused on the road, according to the same study. However, the Virginia researchers said that truckers tend to use on-board computers more often than they text.

The study found that truckers using on-board computers take their eyes off the road for an average of four seconds, enough time at highway speeds to cover roughly the length of a football field.

Richard J. Hanowski, director of the Center for Truck and Bus Safety at the Virginia institute, said videotape monitoring of 200 truckers driving about three million miles showed many of them using the devices, even bypassing messages on the screen warning them not to use the devices while driving.

“Is this any different than texting?” Mr. Hanowski said. “With either one, the risks are very high.”

But Robert D. Foss, a senior researcher at the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina, said the dispatch computers and texting devices present the same potential for distraction.

“It’s hard to accept the assertion: ‘We’re just different,’ ” he said. “You know full well this is motivated by economic considerations.”

There appears to be a strong lobby by both the trucking industry and safety experts and advocates. The statistics do not lie and based on the Virginia Tech report, computers are just as distracting as texting. It will be interesting to see if the in cab computers will be included in any proposed legislation involving the ban on texting and driving.

If you or someone you know has been involved in a trucking accident or car crash, then contact attorney Aaron Bryant at The Bryant Law Group for a free consultation at 312-588-3384.