U.S. truck critics take aim at the industry

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. truckers found themselves on the defensive Friday as one of their most vocal critics, San Francisco-based Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, released its annual rankings of the worst states for fatalities involving heavy trucks.

The group also listed the states with the most children killed in heavy-truck accidents.

At a press conference held in Washington, D.C., CRASH leaders criticized the Office of Motor Carriers for “cosying-up to the industry” and called for the agency to be transferred from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“In 1997, 660 children were killed in large truck crashes,” the group said. “If 12 children a week were dying from contaminated hamburger meat, the government would take immediate action to cope with the disaster, but it’s business as usual at the OMC and for the trucking industry.”

Said CRASH executive director Michael Scippa: “[The trucking industry] and this government have created a regulatory culture of weak rules and laws and paralyzed compliance, and all motorists suffer for it, including truck drivers.”

Scippa attacked proposals to revise federal hours-of-service rules in favor of a longer working day, instead lobbying for truck drivers to be included under the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, which legislates an eight-hour shift.

American Trucking Associations president Walter B. McCormick, Jr., defended the industry’s safety record and called the CRASH report “orchestrated hysteria.”

“The trucking industry has an enviable safety record,” he said in a statement. “Miles driven are up, the fatality rate is down. Indeed, in the last year, the fatality rate was at a 10-year low. … Government statistics show that in that period the rate of fatal accidents involving large trucks has dropped 31%, even though mileage has increased 43%.”

According to CRASH statistics, Texas led the country in 1997 for truck-related highway deaths, with 454 fatalities, followed by California and Florida. The statistics do not take into account the number of fatalities per mile travelled, however.