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Aug 21, 2023

Victims and elected officials gather at Congress to fight for truck safety

RoadsOpinionBy Brian Goggin (Contributor) October 7, 2022 Trucks in line on a

RoadsOpinionBy Brian Goggin (Contributor) October 7, 2022

Trucks in line on a highway by Markus Spiske.

On July 15, 2021, my parents woke up early to drive from their home in Virginia to Atlanta to help my brother move out of his apartment. Shortly after lunch they arrived at a construction zone along I-85 in South Carolina, where they stopped safely behind a line of traffic. Suddenly, they were struck from behind by a semi-truck that failed to stop. My dad survived with injuries. My mom, along with two others in the cars lined up in front of them, did not.

The crash scene shortly after my parents were struck by a semi-truck. Screen shot taken from Fox 8 WGHP. used with permission.

As a frequent pedestrian, transit-user, and reader of this site, I’ve become all too familiar with the failings of traffic safety around our region. But ever since that day, I’ve wondered how often these specific sorts of crashes occur: commercial truckers that simply fail to stop or fail to pay attention to their surroundings. The answer, I’ve found out, is all too common.

Last year, 5,601 people died in a crash involving a commercial truck nationwide. This represents a 13% increase from 2020, higher than the overall nationwide increase in traffic deaths. An additional 146,930 people were injured in crashes involving a large truck in 2020, the most recent year for which the data is available. And there's plenty of victims in our area that share this unique pain. In 2020, there were 108 fatalities involving large trucks in Virginia, 57 in Maryland, and one in DC.

Last month, I got the chance to hear from some of these victims on just how bad the problem is and what we can do about it at the Truck Safety Coalition's 2022 Sorrow to Strength conference. The conference gathers truck crash victims and safety advocates to fight for change on Capitol Hill. Here's a little of what I learned about the issues and potential solutions.

Truck speed

The immense size and speed of large trucks are substantial contributing factors to injuries and death in crashes. Large trucks often weigh up to 80,000 pounds, roughly 20-30 times as much as passenger vehicles. In 2020, 97% of all deaths in fatal two-vehicle crashes involving a passenger vehicle and a large truck were occupants of passenger vehicles. The extreme size of tractor-trailers means that they also have an extremely large stopping distance once the brakes are applied. Estimates show that a tractor-trailer moving at 60 mph has a typical stopping distance of 310 feet (more than a football field) once brakes are applied.

One simple reform to mitigate this danger would be to require the use of speed limiters on commercial vehicles. This year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the agency that regulates all motor carriers operating across state lines, issued a Supplementary Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the effort. Unfortunately, such a proposed rulemaking has been delayed several times over the past 10 years after first being proposed in 2011. Hopefully this time FMCSA follows through. By contrast, speed limiters have long been required for all commercial vehicles in the European Union and parts of Canada. After the introduction of speed-limiting technology in 2009, the Ontario Ministry of Transport estimated that at-fault collisions involving large commercial vehicles fell by 73%.

Driver working conditions

Most truck drivers are not paid by the hour, but instead by the mileage driven. That means when drivers are stuck in traffic or loading up their trucks, they’re usually not being paid. This creates perverse incentives for drivers to speed or work long hours to make up for lost down time. According to one FMCSA study, up to 65% of truck drivers reported that they often or sometimes felt drowsy while driving in the previous year. The FMCSA has also cited driver fatigue is a contributing factor in up to as many as 13% of truck crashes while pressure to work from the carrier was listed as a factor in up to as many as 10% of crashes.

Current FMCSA hours of service regulations permit drivers to drive for up to 11 hours in a 14 hour period. This means most truckers can clock up to 70 hours per week behind the wheel. What's worse, the Fair Labor Standards Act contains an exemption for motor carriers that allows them to deny overtime pay to drivers. These long hours and poor working conditions have led to an almost 90% turnover rate in the industry.

In response, Senator Alex Padilla [D-CA] has introduced the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act (S. 4823), which would eliminate the Fair Labor Standards Act Overtime Exemption for Motor Carriers. To this point, no vote has been taken on the bill.

In addition to legislation, there are plenty of regulatory changes that could strengthen or weaken driver safety. For example, advocates oppose a 2020 FMCSA ruling that allows motor carriers to consider on-duty time where a driver is not driving to qualify as a mandatory 30-minute break period. And more recently, the FMCSA has proposed a pilot program that would allow drivers aged 18-20 to operate commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce. This program threatens safety as teenagers have substantially higher crash rates than those drivers 20 and older.

Braking technology

A common type of truck crash involves rear-end collisions, where a distracted truck driver fails to stop and runs into stopped traffic. These crashes made up 19% (or 964 total) of all fatal crashes in the US in 2019. Furthermore, 33% of all work zone (where traffic is commonly stopped) fatal crashes involved at least one large truck.

A well-established technology exists to help prevent these crashes: automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems. One study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) showed that AEB systems in large trucks can reduce rear-end crashes by up to 41%. This technology is not groundbreaking. The European Union has required AEB with forward collision warning for commercial trucks since 2013. And the costs, ranging between $270-$290 per truck, are marginal when compared to the cost of a new commercial truck, typically $90,000 or more.

Recently, some good news came when the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed with a mandate to implement AEB systems in all new class 7+ trucks within two years. Unfortunately, the ruling does not yet apply retroactively to older trucks or to trucks smaller than class 7, which includes small delivery trucks and passenger vehicles.

Minimum insurance requirements

The current minimum liability insurance requirements for commercial freight trucking carriers is $750,000, and has not increased since it was first implemented in 1980. Adjusting for inflation, this amount is over $2.8 million in 2022 dollars. This is woefully inadequate in cases with fatalities or debilitating injuries, especially considering skyrocketing medical costs over the past 40 years. This creates a low barrier to entry for new, poorly-equipped motor carriers and reduces the incentives for the insurance industry to play a larger role in motor carrier safety through underwriting. Recently, Rep. Jesus Garcia [D-IL] introduced the Insurance Act of 2021 (H.R. 2687) to increase minimum liability insurance for commercial motor vehicles transporting property to $5M and to fix increases to inflation. To this point, no vote has been taken on the bill.

Underride crashes

Another common type of fatal truck crash – known as "underride crashes" — occurs when passenger vehicles collide with and slide under a truck trailer. From 2008 to 2017, the US GAO found that there were an average of about 219 fatalities from underride crashes every year, and this is likely underreported due to variability in state and local data collection.

Example of crash test with (right) and without (left) rear underride guards. used with permission.

Although the federal Bureau of Motor Carriers (now the FMCSA) first required heavy trucks, trailers, and semitrailers to be equipped with rear-end underride prevention devices in 1953, ithas since then had minimal strength requirements. In 2021 the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act required improved rear underride guard performance, but the resulting NHTSA regulation is weaker than most industry standards and notably lacks standards for single-unit trucks, such as dump trucks. In response, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) have introduced the STOP Underrides Act (S. 605), which would require rear, side, and front underride guards on all commercial no vehicles, including single-unit trucks. The bill has yet to have a vote.

Area victims and elected officials fight for change

In response to senseless truck crash deaths, truck crash victims gathered with DC Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, chair of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, for a press conference on September 19. At the conference, Rep. Norton praised the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which as noted above, included new mandates for automatic emergency braking and underride guard standards, as well as increasing funding for the FMCSA by 34%.

DC Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton hosts a press conference on 09/19/2022 with truck crash victims and truck safety advocates. by the author.

Victims speaking out included Daniel and Oliver Langenkamp, husband and son of Sarah Langenkamp, killed by a flatbed truck while riding her bike along River Road in Bethesda. The driver of the truck turned right into the bike lane where Sarah was safely biking. In response, Daniel urged Congress to do more:

"Congress can require that NHTSA require that truck drivers actually have hours of practice behind the wheel of a rig prior to obtaining a CDL, it can require Advanced Driver Assistance Systems for all CMVs, and it can require that large trucks use side underride guards. These are not expensive or complicated solutions"

Sarah was the third cyclist killed by a truck in the area recently after Shawn O’Donnell and Michael Gordon were both killed by trucks in DC earlier this summer. In both cases, the trucks turned into and failed to yield to the oncoming cyclists.

Anna Guardipee of Roanoke, Virginia also came to DC to tell her story to Virginia's Congressional delegation, advocating for safety changes like automatic emergency braking, which could have saved her friend Jenny's life. Traveling together on I-77 in North Carolina, the pair was struck by a semi-truck driver who, texting while driving, failed to brake, and hit them from behind. Anna was paralyzed from the waist down while Jenny died several days later.

The aftermath of Anna Guardipee's car from the truck crash that left her paralyzed. used with permission.

Two weeks ago, Anna met with Congressional representatives to fight for increased truck safety. used with permission.

If you’re interested in learning more please go to the Truck Safety Coalition website. The organization is at the forefront of both advocating for change and connecting victims with help. And to traffic safety advocates everywhere, please keep writing to your elected officials, local, state, and federal. Your words matter to victims everywhere.

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Brian Goggin is an affordable housing professional living in Shaw. Any views expressed here are solely his own.