Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/506679
Voices 4 | Overdrive | May 2015 A Bloomberg News Service story in late March explored antiquated highway offramps and cloverleaves and how they might be contributing to truck driver deaths. Citing recent research, reporter Keith Naughton noted that only about 3 percent of all truck crashes are rollovers, but they account for a disproportionately large number of truck-oc- cupant deaths. Truck driver deaths spiked to 697 in 2012, a year when "rollovers were responsible for more than half of the deaths to drivers and their occupants," Naughton reported. Part of the story explores the holdup of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's work on a rule to mandate electronic stability in new trucks. Bendix repre- sentatives at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March speculated such a rule would be on the books this year. Watchers hope such technology, widely deployed, will re- duce the risk of truck rollovers, even in situations involving poorly designed interchanges or reckless motorists. Also at MATS, the need for more attention to the cause of about 70 percent of truck accidents was a recurring topic in conversations with owner-operators. "Why don't we hear more about these four-wheelers?" asked South Caroli- na-based owner-operator Jimmy Ardis. An encounter with an irresponsible four-wheeler formed the framing anecdote in the Bloomberg story, which was picked up by news outlets nationwide (search this story's title on OverdriveOnline.com to find it). Naughton tells the story of Walter Price's rollover at the nation's No. 1 hotspot for rollovers: Exit 238-B on I-75 in Georgia. As Price began to exit there, a four-wheeler darted in front and slowed quickly to take the exit. In his move to avoid a collision, Price (with his wife asleep in the bunk) couldn't keep the rig upright. In the story, Price recalled how the driver didn't stop. "They create accidents, and they keep on driving like noth- ing happened," he said. "It's brutal out here." The factors behind rollover deaths The American Transportation Research Institute in 2012 mapped hotspots in 31 states for truck rollovers, pinpointing areas where infrastructure design contributes to the problem. Access this interactive map via atri-online.org; click "safety" under the "research" pulldown menu. Polling last summer revealed at least one in five Overdrive readers run with a forward-facing dash camera. Most do so voluntarily to secure evidence that might prove helpful in the event of an accident and/or to deter would-be Visit OverdriveOnline.com/dashcamcentral to share your own video or view others. Let your cameras tell their stories Max Heine