Unfit truckers a menace? Not according to the statistics

Very good article. It matches the information I came up with for a paper I wrote for college last year. There needs to be an effort to wake the public and our politicians up to the reality of things out there.

 

Very true . The public hears lie after lie told by ATA , Road Safe America , and Public Citizen . These organizations make wild , deceptive or untrue statements with no data to back them up . In the July 15-31 issue of "The Trucker " Steve Owings of Road Safe America was babbling about speed limiters again . He stated truck driving was the most dangerous job in the U.S. .Not true . It's number 8 with 27.1 fatalities per 100,000 workers . Fisherman and fishing industry workers are number 1 with 141.7 fatalities per 100,000 workers . I wrote a letter to the editor of "The Trucker" disproving statements made by Owings and ATA but they didn't publish the letter . Owings also used the info on unhealthy drivers to say that is another reason to require speed limiters . I can't post a link to the articles in several health and industrial publications because they have a link to Road Safe America's website and that isn't allowed here . But the article also contains the often repeated lie that Steve Owings son was killed while sitting in traffic and hit from behind . I've read reports and seen photos of the wreck . The car was NOT hit from behind and he was NOT sitting in traffic . The truck involved started to come around him on the left and he swerved left into its path and was hit in the driver's door . The truck driver was charged on with reckless driving , not vehicular homicide drivers at fault in a fatal accident are usually charged with .
Yes , there is a real need to find a section of the media willing to expose the lies of these organizations .

 

I wish there was some place on here for the paper I wrote for college, but it is 11 pages long including the references and title page. I have started playing with turning it into some sort of educational booklet, but haven't gotten very far with that yet. The fun would be finding sponsors to help pay for printing, and then finding sources of distribution, as I would want it to be a free booklet. I wrote the piece in such a way that it would make sense to Joe Public. My instructor for the class really enjoyed the paper.

I was disgusted when I was researching the paper, because in online searches, I would get links to the special interest sites and lawyers that sue the trucking companies. It took some work to get useful information for my paper, but I did find it.

The thing I find annoying is that they talk about speed limiters on trucks, but do nothing about the moron in his sports car doing 90 mph down the interstate.

 

On the speed limiter issue, I agree they have there sights on the wrong group. I also think that limiting the acceleration of new cars would save a boat load of fuel. Setting a 0-60 mph limit is just as realistic as a 85 mph max speed.

 

You might see if OOIDA would help . They are fighting speed limiter laws in Canada now . Todd Dills , senior editor of "Overdrive" magazine might be helpful ("Overdive has an online edition ) but enough has been printed in truck oriented media . That's preaching to the choir . You need an article in "USA Today " , the "New York Times" , or "Washington Post"

 

Hey Lilbit have you thought about creating a website to post your eleven pages? Printing costs way more money than keeping a simple website up-to-date. You wouldn't need a real fancy site. You could even offer a T-shirt or something like that for sale on your site to help pay for your expenses or solicit donations. In many ways today it is the "green" way to get your message out there. Just a thought anyway.

 

Although I'll admit that many truckers are unsafe, Most are safe drivers from what I've seen. The problem is that good drivers get no press and bad drivers get all the press. But let's be fair. There is a higher percentage of car drivers that are unsafe than unsafe truckers. One reason for this is that to get a CDL, a person MUST HAVE A WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (per FMCSR). However, when a person takes a written test to drive a car, they offer the test in almost any language that you can think of. Am I the only one who sees a problem here? I mean, how does it help me to know what a 'yeild' or 'merge' sign means if some immigrant who can't speak the language has no clue as to what any sign means?