I feel for many of these people in some ways. Many of them have had loved ones who have been killed or seriously injured in truck related crashes. They let their pain control what brains they have and cannot be reasoned with using facts and figures. As long as humans are at the controls of vehicles, or machines made by humans (in the near future, perhaps) there will be accidents. If you compare the number of serious accidents per million miles traveled by trucks and cars, the difference is amazing. You reach a point of diminishing returns (for any economic majors here) where it takes so much more put into reducing accidents to get even a tiny reduction that it is not worth it the effort.

My God, look at how many people die from hospital errors each year (about 195,000 in the US)! Those things are very easily prevented, unlike accidents. You don’t see a huge public outcry over that. Trucks are large and scary to many people and a few dangerous truck drivers gives the whole industry a bad name. Truck accidents get 100 times the press of car accidents because they are more destructive when they do happen.

 

whole story is at this link: http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jul...cal/me-crash23

Car vs. Big Rig: Usually Loser’s Fault
By Hugo MartÃ*n
July 23, 2002 in print edition B-6

Car drivers are most often to blame for fatal accidents with big-rig trucks and are most likely to die in those crashes, according to a national study to be released today. The study of more than 10,000 fatal accidents by the Automobile Assn. of America’s Foundation for Traffic Safety determined that car drivers cause most collisions with big rigs by speeding, failing to yield or cutting in the path of the trucks.

Of those killed in the car-versus-truck accidents, 98% are car drivers or their passengers, the study concluded.

The study echoed the findings of previous research that blamed the drivers of passenger vehicles for most collisions with big rigs. But for the first time, the AAA study sought to determine the most common driving behavior that results in such accidents.

The study did not calculate how often car drivers were at fault nationally. But the Automobile Club of Southern California estimated that, among those accidents in which police determined who was to blame, car drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians were blamed for 69% of their accidents with big rigs in California last year.

Fatalities resulting from accidents involving big rigs dropped in California to 396 last year, from 412 in 2000, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The findings of the national study are significant for Southern California motorists who find themselves increasingly sharing congested roads with big rigs. Due to a surge in overseas cargo shipments, big rig traffic from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has increased steadily and is expected to more than triple by 2020, from 30,000 trips a day to 100,000.

“Car drivers need to realize that greater precautions must be taken when driving near trucks,” said Steven Bloch, senior researcher for AAA.

Such accidents are most often blamed on car drivers who fail to stay in their lanes, refuse to yield right of way to big rigs, drive too fast for conditions or otherwise break traffic laws, according to the AAA study.

 

a link to some govt research: http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/hsis/pubs/04085/index.htm

 

I prefer to park on ramps if they are wide enough. I've never been hit by a drunk driver. You care to guess how many times I've been hit in truck stops (even three times at the fuel island!) and at docks? I actually lost count. In fact, I will only park in a truck stop as a very last resort. I value my truck too much.

 

I would like to see us throw the log books away and just do our jobs. Most people rest when they get tired and run when they can. The problem with these groups is that they take a cookie cutter approach to pushing through legislation that they think will make them safer. In reality, many of these rules they get through only make roads less safe. There is no way to make roads 100% safe all the time. It will never happen. There are somewhere around 3-5 million truck drivers on the road today, each with a different body clock. You cannot legislate anyone's body clock.

 

Amen brother!