Download Free Continuing To Improve Truck Safety On Our Nations Highways Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Continuing To Improve Truck Safety On Our Nations Highways and write the review.

Continuing to improve truck safety on our nation's highways : hearing before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, first session, March 14, 2017.
About 4,000 people are killed each year in truck crashes and nearly 100,000 are injured each year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), truck crash injuries increased by 40 percent from 2009 to 2012. There have been a lot of headlines lately; Tracy Morgan, the comedian, was seriously injured in a crash in early June involving a large truck, which also severely injured a Connecticut resident. Rule changes in 2013 were designed to prevent truck drivers from being forced to work too many hours, becoming exhausted and endangering themselves and other drivers on the road. They are a step in the right direction. As one 2005 study conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) demonstrated, under the old rules, 65 percent of drivers reported feeling drowsy while driving, and 48 percent admitted to falling asleep while driving at the same point during the previous year.
In late 1996 and early 1997, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Committee for Highway Traffic Safety, with the assistance of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Transportation Safety Management, assembled a group of national safety experts in driver, vehicle, and highway issues from various organizations. The purpose was to develop a strategic plan for highway safety that would impact the nation's present and predicted statistics on vehicle-related death and injury. The participants included a range of stakeholders representing both the private and public sectors. This document contains the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan that was developed. It not only addresses what some consider the traditional AASHTO concerns for infrastructure, but also driver, occupant, vehicle, and post-crash responsibilities in non-infrastructure areas. Moreover, this major safety initiative is built on safety programs already in existence. The safety strategies are considered cost-effective and acceptable to a significant majority of Americans. A draft implementation plan was also developed for each strategy of the initiative. The critical strategies cover 22 key emphasis areas: instituting graduated licensing for young drivers; ensuring drivers are licensed and fully competent; sustaining proficiency in older drivers; curbing aggressive driving; reducing impaired driving; keeping drivers alert; increasing driver safety awareness; increasing seat belt usage and improving airbag effectiveness; making walking and street crossing easier; ensuring safer bicycle travel; improving motorcycle safety and increasing motorcycle awareness; making truck travel safer; increasing safety enhancements in vehicles; reducing vehicle-train crashes; keeping vehicles on the roadway; minimizing the consequences of leaving the road; improving the design and operation of highway intersections; reducing head-on and across-median crashes; designing safer work zones; enhancing emergency medical capabilities to increase survivability; improving information and decision support systems; and creating more effective processes and safety management systems.