In most states, including California, there has been a recent surge in promoting truck highway safety. This includes safer roads, driver safety and pinpointing areas of high truck accident percentages.
For example, in North Dakota, a recent study by a regional truck safety organization found that more than two-thirds of all truck crashes occurred in ‘oil counties” or counties where petroleum was either produced or refined. The data was collected between 2012 and 2016. Even though North Dakota is an oil-producing state, the figure is unusually high considering the multitude of truck hauling products that occur in the state.
The study is a good first step in zeroing in on a problem area. Once the problem is identified, remedial steps can be taken to improve the situation. Determining the cause of accidents in those counties, whether it is road design in those areas, traffic flow or drivers themselves is the next step in the analysis. In the end, the goal is safer roads for both truck drivers and the drivers of passenger vehicles who share the roads.
Monitoring truck drivers has become a nationwide effort in recent years. Under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act, drivers are now required to log hours behind the wheel electronically. Though truck drivers have had maximum driving hour restrictions for many years, the electronic system of recording hours is more accurate and more of a deterrent to evade the law. Modern systems are integrated with the truck itself and can log based on engine RPMs.
Truck accidents can occur for a number of reasons. But when an accident occurs, injuries are generally more severe and fatalities are more likely. For those who are the victim of a truck collision, a personal injury attorney might be of assistance in finding the cause of the collision and determine the party at fault.
