Overdrive

October 2016

Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info

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VOICES 12 | Overdrive | October 2016 That headline comes from a blog post by the folks at the Bureau of Labor Statistics within the U.S. Depart- ment of Labor, who crunched their numbers to make observations about truckers' workplace fatalities and injuries. In addition to the stat in the headline, they included some other pertinent stats: In 2014, 761 tractor-trailer drivers were killed while working. It's the fi fth year in a row that number has increased. Most of these deaths occur as a re- sult of crashes, and drivers no doubt don't need reminding of the danger associated with sharing the road these days. However, Overdrive also has followed the National Highway Traffi c Safety Administration's statistics year to year in this area. Compared to high fatality numbers in the decade and more prior to the 2009 recession, recent-year truck-occupant crash fatalities generally have been on a downward trend. Given that, the increases of fatal- ities that DOL's post notes must be coming from somewhere other than crashes. The post doesn't explore that, though it does note this: Heavy-duty truck drivers have the highest number of nonfatal injuries and illnesses that require days off from work across all occupations (a total of 55,710 in 2014). Slips, trips and falls are among the biggest cause of injury among truckers, as Las Vegas-based fl at- bedder Pete Zimmer has noted. His op-ed on tarping safety, penned for Overdrive, covered loading/unloading by extension, and just what all parties to freight movement can do to help in this arena. If you missed that piece, search "don't become a statistic" at OverdriveOnline.com. 'One out of every six Americans killed on the job is a truck driver' Trucker Mike Boggs was sitting in traffi c on I-65 behind a van hauler. The driver "let her foot off the brakes and rolled about 10 feet back into me. She damaged my grille, and in order to not have to pay for it myself, I called the police and got a report. The cop acted like he was bored to tears after he spoke to the other driver. She was denying that it happened at all." But the offi cer perked up a bit when he learned about Boggs' dashcam, which had caught the whole thing. The offi - cer said that "if everyone had one of these, it would make his job so much easier," Boggs says. Without the video, it would have been "he-said she-said" and no insurance payment. "This minor incident paid for my camera several times over." Catch Boggs' video of the incident and more views through readers' windshields, or upload your own, via OverdriveOn- line.com/dashcamcentral. Gotcha! How to pay for dashcam 'several times over' Mike Boggs documented a truck rolling back into his grille. Max Heine Many of trucking's injuries are associated with loading and unloading flatbeds.

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