Personal Injury Blog

Truck Accident Fatalities on the Rise Again

December 6th, 2011
truck accident fatalities

Truck accident fatalities are expected to increase over the next year

If preliminary statistics by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are correct, then Los Angeles truck accident lawyers expect another increase in truck accident fatalities in the United States after a couple of years of declining death rates.

The new information came out at a hearing to discuss the much-anticipated review of the Hours of Service rules by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.  Lawmakers, trucking safety groups and the trucking industry are all debating a reduction in the maximum number of work hours that a trucker can be allowed to drive consecutively from the current 11 hours in a 14-hour window, to 10 hours.  The trucking industry is adamantly opposed to any proposal reducing those work hours because it would result in huge losses for the industry.  However Los Angeles truck accident attorneys and trucking safety groups have strongly supported any reduction in the Hours of Service rules.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Anne Ferro spoke at the hearing, and said that the trucking industry’s arguments that motorists and truckers in the United States are now safer because of the 11-hour rules may be off the mark.  The trucking industry has frequently used the argument that there has been a decline in trucking accidents since the 11-hour rules went into effect.

However, that does not seem to have been entirely true.  According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief, preliminary statistics from 2011 show that there’s actually been an increase in trucking accident fatalities this year.  According to Anne Ferro, the number of people who have been killed in truck accidents in the United States in 2011 thus far is close to 4,000.  That is in contrast to the 3,360 fatalities in 2009.  However, there has been a decline in the total number of accidents this year.

Lawmakers have been divided on the issue of reduction of Hours of Service for truck drivers.  Some lawmakers believe that the current rules are working well as they are, and that there is no reason for any reduction.  Lawmakers are especially concerned about the possibility of huge losses for the trucking industry, from the increased work hours.  The trucking industry has done a good job of lobbying lawmakers to convince them that that the industry will face severe financial losses from any reduction in the hours of service rules.  Some estimates place those losses at an estimated $2 billion annually.

However, trucking safety groups and Los Angeles truck accident attorneys believe that the primary concern here should be not the balance sheets of trucking companies, but the safety of American motorists and truck drivers.

 

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