Truck driver safety

The majority of participants had never experienced any form of level crossing safety education and comments indicated that both engineering and education needs should be addressed for truck driver safety ... 

The results of sleep deprivation have been linked to motor vehicle accidents, major industrial accidents such as the Exxon Valdez, and Three Mile Island, and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (2). The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 1999 estimated that 56,000 police-reported crashes and 4% of all traffic crash fatalities (1550 cases) involved drowsiness and fatigue as principal causes (3). Sleepiness was a probable cause in about one third of all fatal-to-driver motor vehicle accidents involving commercial truck drivers (4). 

In 1995, a study by the National Transportation Safety Board on fatal accidents in professional trucks drivers (27) showed that the mean duration of sleep among drivers was below 6 hr of sleep in the last 24 hr before the accident. Connor et al. (8) showed that sleepiness at the wheel increased the risk of causing a traffic accident by 8.2-fold. Sleeping less than 5 hr in the 24 hr before the accident and driving between 2 and 5 a.m. were also significant risk factors for accidents [odds ratio (OR) = 2.7 and OR = 5.6, respectively],... 

In 1990, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) completed a study of 182 fatal-to-the-driver truck accidents to investigate the probable cause of the accidents. While the study was designed under the assumption that most fatal heavy truck crashes may be related to alcohol and other drugs, it was found that the most frequently determined probable cause was fatigue (12). A 1993 analysis of the Fatal Accident Report System (FARS) also suggested that truck driver fatigue is a contributing factor in about 30% of heavy truck accidents. 

National Transportation Safety Board. Fatigue, alcohol, other drags, and medical factors in fatal-to-the-driver heavy truck crashes. Safety Study NTSB/SS-90/01 Washington, DC NTSB, 1990. 

There are a number of ways to identify hazardous occupations. And depending on the method used, different occupations are identified as most hazardous. One method counts the number of job-related fatalities in a given occupation or other group of workers. This generates a fatality frequency count for the employment group, which safety and health professionals often use to indicate the magnitude of the safety and health problem. For example, truck drivers have the largest number of fatalities and accounted for about 12 percent of all the job-related fatalities in 1995 (see Table 1—3). But this number is influenced not only by the risk workers face in that occupation, but also by the total number of workers in the occupation. 

What is the most dangerous occupation in the United States Is it truck driver, fisher, or elephant trainer The public frequently asks this question, as do the news media and safety and health professionals. To answer it, BLS used data from its Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). ... 

Bullet-resistant windows gave a truck driver a sense of safety after several hijacking incidents, but they also made the cab unbearably stuffy and hot. So the driver installed nautical ventilators in the roof. Two elbows of stovepipe were set over the cab like the air vents on a ship s deck, and were provided with caps which could be closed easily from the inside. 

Operation Roadcheck The transportation industry is well aware of CVSA s Roadcheck, taking place for three days (72 hours) in early June of each year. The roadside inspection blitz is an intense truck and bus safety inspection effort conducted throughout Canada, Mexico, and the United States focusing on the international roadside inspection program and other commercial vehicle and driver safety programs. It is sponsored by CVSA, FMCSA, and other participating organizations, annually in June of each year. Published results... 

In a naturalistic truck driver study conducted for the FMCSA by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), distraction was formd to be a significant factor in safety-related events. The data was collected using in-cab surveillance cameras that recorded the activities of 100 drivers and their surroundings for 18 months. The study involved over 735,000 miles of driving. 

Truck drivers must complete daily logs and submit them to their employers, who keep them under rales of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Office. 

Chapter 7 deals with local and short haul (L/SH) truck drivers work in various environments (in addition to that of the truck cab), whose safety issues vary widely. This study combines methods from three time perspectives—accident statistics analyses (past), video observations (present) and scenario workshops (future)—to provide new knowledge that can be applied to the development of the design and management process in the transportation industry. 

Abstract Local and short haul (L/SH) drivers work in various other work environments in addition to that of the truck cab, and the safety of these environments vary widely. In this study, we combined methods from three time perspectives accident statistics analyses (past) video observations (present) and scenario workshops (future) in order to provide new knowledge that can be applied to design and management process development in the transportation industry. Even though new technologies have and will emerge to ease drivers work, the work that is performed in environments other than truck cabs still involves tasks that require physical activities and pose risks of occupational diseases and accidents. Thus, drivers safety at work and work ability issues remain an area that needs continuous, systemic development. The results inevitably show that in order to successfully improve L/SH drivers work, the relevant stakeholders participation and a systemic approach is crucial. 

Huang YH, Zohar D, Robcatson MM, Garabet A, Lee J, Murphy LA (2013) Development and validation of safety climate scales for lone workers using truck drivers as exemplar. Transp Res F Traffic Psychol Behav 17 5-19... 

Table 17.2 shows a few examples from this real-world data set, whereby truck drivers were recorded on video as they drove while making their daily deliveries. From left to right, the columns in Table 17.2 show (i) the non-driving task that was observed in the video, (ii) the odds ratio highlighting the associated risk, and (iii) the 95% confidence interval. All odds ratios in Table 17.2 are statistically significant ip < 0.05) thus, aU the non-driving tasks listed in Table 17.2 are associated with a significant increase in risk (i.e., increased probability of involvement in a crash, nearcrash, or other safety-related event). 

Hanowski, R.J., WierwUle, W.W., Gellatly, A.W., Dingus, T.A., Knipling, R.R., and CatroU, R. 1999. Safety concerns of local/short haul truck drivers. Transportation Human Factors... 

Oron-Gilad, T., A. Ronen, D. Shinar and Y. Cassuto (2001). Fatigue of professional Truck Drivers in Simulated Driving A preliminary Study. Proceedings of Traffic Safety on Three Continents, International Conference in Moscow, Russia, 19-21 September. 

A behavioral safety process based on self-observations may be more appropriate for some companies. A self-observation process is particularly appropriate when (1) their employees work in isolation or on small crews of two or three (such as loggers, electrical linemen, or truck drivers) or (2) their employees are extremely resistant to the idea of peer observations. In these situations, a self-observation process has been shown to improve safety practices and reduce incidents [see Olson and Austin (2002) and the case studies in Chapter 25]. 

In 2004, Spiegel Online ran the headline The blind spot has been eliminated (in German Der tote Winkel ist tot ). From a visual perspective, the safety issue is now as good as resolved. However, just like before, truck drivers are still responsible for focusing their attention on all (...) mirrors before any change of direction [6]. 

A 2002 research study prepared for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that automobile drivers contribute more to crashes involving large trucks than do commercial vehicle drivers. Some 75% of all driver errors were caused by automobile drivers, compared to 25% for truck drivers." ... 

---