If safety is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Minnesota’s trucking industry, it should be. Safety is the cornerstone behind the industry’s regulative and legislative efforts and the results are evident when you look at the statistics.
Over the past decade, the fatality rate for large trucks nationwide has dropped an average of twenty-five percent, while total mileage has increased twenty-six percent.[1]
Fatal Crash Rate for Large Trucks[2]
The numbers.
In 2008, there were 4,344 truck-involved crashes reported to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS). [3] That number represents a 6% decrease from 2007 and the lowest raw number over the last decade.[4] They also reported 64 fatal truck-involved crashes, with 74 persons killed. That number represents a fourteen percent decrease from 2007.[5]
The cause.
Illegal or unsafe speeds were cited as contributory causes to accidents fourteen percent of the time for non-truck drivers, but only ten percent for truck drivers.[6]
A failure to yield was cited as a contributory cause thirteen percent of the time for non-truck drivers, but only eight percent of the time for truck drivers.[7]
Chemical impairment was cited as a contributory cause less than half a percent (.5%) of the time for truck drivers.[8]
The result.
Trucks are safe. The Minnesota Trucking Association, its members and the industry at large will continue to develop methods to maintain and improve the safety of all drivers on the road.
1 See Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Analysis Division, Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts 2008, Table 1 Large Truck Fatal Crash Statistics, 1975-2008 (Oct. 2009).
2 Id.
3 Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Minnesota Motor Vehicle Crash Facts 2008 (2009).
4 Id.
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Id.
8 Id.
