An association’s recent review of federal accident statistics claims that money the trucking industry has invested in safety may just be paying off.
ATA says truck accident fatalities are lessening.The American Trucking Associations (ATA) says its analysis of Department of Transportation data shows over both the long- and short-term that the rate of truck-involved fatalities is declining.
“America’s trucking industry has invested billions to improve safety and that commitment is paying off,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves.
According to the ATA’s analysis of miles traveled data from the Federal Highway Administration and highway fatality data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the truck-involved fatality rate fell for the second straight year to 1.40 per 100 million miles traveled.
The ATA says:
“Per NHTSA, there were 3,903 truck-involved fatalities in 2014, a decline of 61 total from the previous year. At the same time, the number of miles traveled by large trucks rose to more than 279 billion. Of note, these figures only represent fatalities where a large truck was involved in the crash and do not reflect causation. Numerous studies have found that trucks are responsible for initiating less than a third of all fatal car-truck crashes, which is why ATA supports aggressive traffic enforcement and education programs aimed at changing the unsafe behaviors of all motorists.
“The fatality rate dipped 2.78 percent from 2013 and has fallen 4.76 percent over the past two years. More importantly, it has fallen an impressive 40.6 percent over the past decade.”
