Traffic fatalities involving large trucks trending downward

Traffic fatalities involving large trucks are finally trending downward, but if any safety regulations are going to take credit, it will be those that are pro-driver, not pro-technology.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 2,523 traffic fatalities involving at least one large truck in the first half of 2024. That was a 1% decrease compared to the first half of 2023.

Fewer traffic fatalities involving large trucks are a welcome statistic, as that number has been trending upward since at least 2009. NHTSA’s latest finalized data shows that traffic deaths involving large trucks increased in 2022 despite numbers in most categories decreasing.

However, there are signs that the upward trend of traffic fatalities involving large trucks is reversing. Preliminary numbers indicate there were 8% fewer deaths involving large trucks for all of 2023, one of the largest improvements across all categories.

In addition, traffic fatalities are decreasing across nearly all categories. Since 2009, traffic deaths have been trending downward, with relatively large increases in 2015, 2016, 2020 and 2021. The latter two increases were likely the result of changes in driving behaviors, travel patterns and transportation options caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHTSA’s latest traffic fatalities report expands on its September report of overall fatalities for the second half of 2024, which reveals a 3% decrease compared to the first six months of last year. Combined with an increase in vehicle miles traveled, the fatality rate (fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled) dropped from 1.21 in the second half of 2023 to 1.17.

Regulators need to listen to truckers

Within the past decade, the federal government has either finalized or proposed a variety of regulations on truckers aimed at reducing traffic fatalities, but only the rules supported by the trucking industry seem to more closely correlate with fewer deaths.

Changes to hours-of-service regulations that stripped truck drivers of flexibility were introduced, including the 34-hour restart and mandatory 30-minute rest break within eight hours of driving. Traffic fatalities did not go down in the years that followed.

Perhaps the most significant change was the ELD mandate that went into effect in 2017. Since then, traffic fatalities involving large trucks have increased every year up to 2022, the last year NHTSA has finalized data. The one exception was a small drop in 2020 when the pandemic hit and many passenger vehicles were taken off the road.

Stakeholders warned FMCSA that taking power away from the drivers would be counterproductive to improving safety. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association maintained that improving the quality of drivers through better training and work conditions would yield the results that safety advocates were chasing.

In the past four years, FMCSA has rolled out two major rules that gained the support of OOIDA and other trucking stakeholders. Just two years ago, new entry-level driver training rules went into effect after being delayed for several years. In 2020, revisions to the hours of service have given some power back to drivers when mapping out their day.

“The final hours-of-service rule will provide drivers more opportunities to rest when they are tired, to stay off the road during adverse driving conditions and to maintain greater control over their own schedules,” OOIDA wrote back in 2020. “As the rulemaking repeatedly makes clear, these hours-of-service reforms will not increase available driving time. The changes will help reverse the rising crash rates highway users have experienced since the inception of existing hours-of-service standards.”

Although safety groups were mostly behind the training rules, they petitioned to undo the new hours-of-service rules.

“The weakening of the hours-of-service rules will undoubtedly endanger the lives of truck drivers and the citizens with whom they share the roads every day,” the safety groups wrote in their petition. “Despite claims that these revisions will empower drivers to make independent choices to address fatigue more efficiently, the repeated mention of traffic, foul weather and detention time belies this claim as the agency’s actual justification for this proposed change to the hours-of-service rules.”

Turns out, they were wrong. In the years immediately after the ELD mandate – which safety groups championed – traffic fatalities went up. However, not long after the rules the trucking industry advocated for went into effect, fewer people are dying in large truck-involved crashes.

Apparently, no lessons have been learned. Safety groups are at it again by lobbying for government-mandated automatic emergency braking systems and speed limiters. Similar to the ELD mandate, the trucking industry has warned federal regulators that both technologies could drive traffic fatalities up, not down.

Meanwhile, OOIDA and other trucking stakeholders continue to call for action that focuses on the driver, including a minimum number of behind-the-wheel hours for driver training. Improving working conditions is another way to improve highway safety. Although the government can’t control pay, it can help solve issues like the nationwide truck parking crisis, broker transparency and fraud, restroom access and the overtime exemption.

Improved conditions and pay equals improved quality of new drivers equals improved highway safety. This is simple math that can be verified just by looking at traffic fatalities involving large trucks over the past 10 years. LL