Articles Posted in Truck Accidents

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.

More than 35,000 potentially unrepaired trucks and buses could be putting New York road users at risk of dangerous accidents.

A recent audit by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found that The New York Department of Transportation is not doing enough to ensure that commercial bus and truck companies whose vehicles or drivers have been found to have violations serious enough to warrant their removal from services, are making timely repairs or corrections.

The audit looked at inspections conducted from September 2008 to 2012 and found that out of 448,842 inspections conducted 20% of them or 90,368 vehicles were cited for one or more out of service violations. 76,229 of them were out of service violations on vehicles (trucks or buses) and 21,417 on drivers.

To prevent bus and truck accidents caused by negligent motor carriers the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration just published a final rule that addresses motor carrier management companies with a pattern of safety violations.

Starting February 21st 2014, the FMCSA will have the authority to “suspend or revoke the operating authority registration of for-hire motor carriers that show egregious disregard for safety compliance, permit persons who have shown egregious disregard for safety compliance to exercise controlling influence over their operations, or operate multiple entities under common control to conceal noncompliance with safety regulations“.

This new rule will prevent bus and truck operating companies that have been previously placed out of service to submit a new registration under a new name to continue operations or to avoid other negative consequences of non-compliant behavior including a poor safety history.

A woman suffered severe personal injury in a truck accident in New York last Saturday. The 63 year old woman was crossing Second Ave at 68th Street when she was struck and dragged by a cement mixer truck. Her leg was severed below the knee. The truck driver didn’t see the victim.

Unfortunately, every year, thousands of people are killed or sustain serious injuries in accidents involving commercial trucks and buses. Tragically, many of these accidents are the result of negligent truck and bus drivers and their employers. These accidents can result from poor driving, including the failure to yield the right of way to pedestrians, vehicles, bicyclists, failure to keep a proper lookout as well as other violations of the relevant vehicle and traffic laws. Some accidents also involve the failure to properly maintain and/or equip the involved truck or bus.

Read more about this truck Accident in DNA Info New York