Truck accidents are one of the most dangerous types of collisions that occur in Fort Worth, Dallas, Arlington and surrounding areas. The prevention of truck collisions needs to be a top priority in order to reduce the risk of serious injuries or fatalities both to professional drivers as well as to pedestrians, bicyclists and people in passenger cars.
A truck accident lawyer knows that there are many safety rules that have been passed in the state of Texas and by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. However, given the many common causes of truck accidents, there is room for improvement in terms of regulation, and much more could be done in order to reduce collision risks.
New Truck Safety Rules Could Help Make Motorists Safer
According to Transport Topics, the National Transportation Safety Board recognizes the need to improve truck safety regulations. The NTSB has identified a "Most Wanted" agenda for 2015 with a list of goals that it would like to accomplish. One of the goals on that list is improving truck safety.
The NTBS plans to explore a "broad spectrum" of policies with the aim of making commercial motor vehicles safer on the roads. This may include things like imposing new maintenance requirements and passing stricter regulations to ensure that truck drivers are cleared as medically fit before getting behind the wheel of a big rig.
The NTSB may also wish to consider some of the suggestions made by the American Trucking Association for improving truck safety. Tire Business reports that the ATA has made a list of recommendations for lawmakers on new safety efforts including:
- Requiring that all large trucks incorporate speed limiters, which set the maximum speed that the truck can go.
- Changing the focus of enforcement and inspection, which is currently largely focused on roadside inspections and which the ATA believes should instead be more focused on traffic stops to enforce traffic violations and driver behavior.
- Altering training requirements to focus more on comprehension and ensuring truckers have the necessary skills rather than the current focus on how many hours of training that truckers have received.
- Monitoring how the change to hours-of-service rules impact safety. The hours-of-service rules were changed to require truckers include two periods between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM in their mandated 34 hour rest break after reaching the maximum weekly hours of driving. However, this requirement was recently suspended. The impact of the changes needs to be understood in order to inform future policy.
- Incentivizing the inclusion of crash avoidance technologies in order to encourage more vehicles to come equipped with lane departure warning systems and other crash protection technologies.
These changes could have a positive impact by taking new steps to make sure truck drivers are very skilled in what they do and by taking new steps to make truckers safer. As the NTSB moves forward with its plans to prioritize truck safety as part of its 2015 agenda, perhaps the agency will decide to implement some of these recommended safety improvements that come directly from trucking industry groups.
If you or a loved one has been injured contact Coby L. Wooten, Attorney at Law, P.C. at 800-994-1966 or visit https://www.cobywootenlaw.com. Serving Dallas, Arlington, Fort Worth, TX and surrounding areas.