Truck-involved fatalities down, FHWA says
safety in brief 50 Commercial Carrier Journal April 2009 F igures released by the Federal Highway Administration indicate that the truck-involved fatality rate in 2007 declined 5.8 percent to 2.12 per 100 million miles from 2.25 per 100 mil-lion miles in 2006. Since new hours-of-service regulations took effect in 2005, the truck-involved fatality rate has come down more than 10 percent and is at its lowest since records began to be kept in 1975. The truck-involved fatal crash rate and the truck-occupant fatality rate also declined from 2006 to 2007. The truck-involved fatal crash rate declined 4.5 per-cent to 1.85 per 100 million miles, and the truck-occupant fatality rate declined 1.98 percent to 0.35 per 100 million miles. These crash rates are based on FHWA's figures that report vehicle miles trav-eled by truck increased in 2007 to 226.96 billion miles from 222.5 billion in 2006; during that same time, the actual number of truck-involved fatal crashes fell to 4,190 from 4,321. This achievement is great for all of us who travel our nation's highways, says Bill Graves, American Trucking Associations president and chief executive officer. The trucking industry remains committed to safety, and ATA will continue to advance its aggressive safety agenda in an effort to continue this outstanding trend. PHH Arval (www.phharval.com) announced the launch of a comprehensive risk and safety program geared toward medium and heavy trucks and equipment. Designed to cover the whole spectrum of risk and safety needs for commercial truck fleets, PHH says its Truck Risk and Safety program identifies high-risk drivers, provides effective and targeted driver training, and efficiently manages the risk and costs of collisions that do happen. PHH says the program includes various services that can be delivered as stand-alone offerings or in any combination, including collision prevention, identification of high-risk drivers, accident management and classroom- and simulator-based driver training. The truck-involved fatality rate, truck-involved fatal crash rate and truck-occupant fatality rate all declined from 2006 to 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Truck-involved fatalities down Rate at lowest level since 1975, FHWA says n Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is hosting on its website safe driving tips, including video clips, for commercial motor vehicles. The videos were recorded during a driving study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute showing exam-ples of driver errors. To find the tips, go to www.fmcsa.dot.gov and search CMV Web-Based Driving Tips. n (www.qualcomm.com) and Instructional Technologies Inc. (www.instructiontech. net) announced that they are working together to offer ITI's Pro-Tread Training Series on the new Qualcomm Mobile Computing Platform 200 Series. The multimedia training covers safety, regu-latory and hazardous materials topics. n (www.gefleet.com) says its expanded accident services reporting provides cus-tomers with data, analytics and a detailed overview of their total accident-related expenses to identify opportunities to reduce vehicle accident costs and risks. n an online safety management tool from J.J. Keller & Associates Inc. added industry-specific information to its topic index to help provide subscribers with a greater ability to make decisions sur-rounding their safety programs. n merged Yellow and Roadway said that Arthur Cage became the only truck driver in company history to achieve 5 million accident-free miles. Cage, 62, has driven for Roadway for more than 35 years and is a line-haul driver working out of the company's service center in Memphis, Tenn. PHH Arval launches truck risk, safety program