New Study Indicates Many Trucking Companies Violate Federal Safety Laws - September 03, 2009

A analysis of government data by the American Association for Justice indicates that more that 28,000 motor carrier companies are operating in violation of federal safety laws. It is estimated that over 200,000 tractor trailers are operating under unsafe conditions. 87% of those violating safety standards are smaller firms with fleets of 10 tractor trailers or less. Over a million lines of data were analyzed to determine the number of potentially unsafe trucks on the road.
According to information obtained from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), over 4000 people die every year from trucking related accidents and over 80,000 are seriously injured. Although trucks represent only 4% of the number of vehicles on United States roads, they are involved in 12% of the motor vehicle fatalities. Furthermore, the vast majority of people who are killed or suffer injury in truck and car collisions are the drivers and passengers of the automobiles hit.

While the number of violators is alarming, it is possible that these numbers are low. According to a 2005 Government Accountability Office (GAO) study, almost one-third of the commercial motor vehicle crashes that require reporting to the federal government were never recorded, and state crash reports are not always accurate.

A July 2009 GAO study found that while more than 1000 trucking companies were ordered out of service for violations of federal safety laws, they were able to continue running by operating under a different name - often using the same owner, address and employees.

An additional problem is that often the insurance in such accidents is inadequate. While there are minimum insurance requirements for commercial trucks, that minimum has not been changed or updated in almost 30 years. Congress created a minimum in 1980 of $750,000, which is worth roughly $292,000 today after adjusting for inflation.

While traveling this Labor Day weekend, please be safe and keep these figures in mind. It is always best to give the big rigs plenty of room and distance.