In a just-released report from the American Association of Justice, a new analysis of government data reveals that more than 28,000 motor carrier companies have violated federal safety regulations, operating over 200,000 trucks.
The data analyzed shows that the commuting motoring public is sharing the roads with trucks that have incurred thousands of safety violations – such as defective brakes, bald tires, loads that dangerously exceed weight limits, and drivers with little or no training or drugs and alcohol dependencies.
More than 4,000 people die every year in collisions with trucks and 80,000 more are seriously injured. Though trucks make up less than 4% of all passenger vehicles on U.S. roads, they are involved in 12% of all motor vehicle fatalities.
The vast majority of people killed in accidents with commercial trucks are the drivers and passengers of the cars that get hit. The article is released to warn the nearly 30 million Americans that will be traveling the U.S. roads during the Labor Day holiday to be on notice of the 18-wheelers in your path
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
