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WASHINGTON — American Trucking Associations has called on Congress and the Department of Transportation to back an 18-point plan to reduce truck-involved crashes, with a particular emphasis on driver behavior.
The proposal, which also focuses on vehicle safety and improving overall motor carrier performance, was unveiled here in June during a Capitol Hill press conference.
ATA President Bill Graves called the package “an innovative agenda that will greatly improve safety for all motorists on our national highway system.”
He said that although trucking “is the safest it has been since the Department of Transportation began keeping crash statistics in 1975, even greater strides must be taken to further the trend.”
Congress is now drafting new highway funding and safety legislation that could be used to implement a number of ATA’s recommendations.
Barbara Windsor, ATA’s second vice chairwoman and president of Hahn Transportation Inc., New Market, Md., said 11 of the 18 policies focus on drivers of trucks and cars.
That is “because studies have shown that driver error and inattention contribute to the majority of these crashes,” said Windsor, who headed ATA’s safety task force.
Speaking at the press conference, John Hill, former head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said data showed that 88% of all truck-related crashes “involved in some way the driver” of either a passenger vehicle or a truck.
Among ATA’s proposals are:
* Support for restrictions on distracting technologies, such as cell phones and Global Positioning System devices.
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