Truck Driving and DUI: Why It’s Absolutely Lethal
Read on to find out what makes truck driving and driving under the influence (DUI) an absolutely lethal combination. Do you know that truck driving is the 7th most dangerous job in the world? Truck driving involves long work hours on the road, fatigue, oversized loads, poor weather, mechanical defects, and inadequate maintenance, among others. In 2014, some 761 truck drivers perished while on the job. In 2015, the number of fatalities decreased to 745. In 2016, a total of 918 truck drivers died, which comprises 24.7 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of truck driver deaths increased by 7%. In fact, truckers registered higher rates of workplace deaths than any other job. The increased reliance on trucking to transport goods, as well as the demand for rapid delivery created by online shopping, explain the enormous number of truck drivers on the road. Approximately, they move 11 billion tons of freight each year. What other factors increase the hazard of truck driving? Passenger vehicles are no match in any way for large commercial trucks on the road. As trucks weigh as much as 30 times more than a passenger vehicle, the passengers of the smaller vehicles have a lesser chance of surviving in an accident involving big rigs. Since trucks require more stopping distance, especially when loaded, truck drivers need vigilance and plenty of time to react when it is necessary to slow down to avoid a crash. Let’s take a quick look at police-reported crashes involving large trucks as reported by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
- Of the 411,000 police-reported crashes in 2014, 3, 424 (1%,) resulted in at least one fatality, and 82,000 (20%) resulted in at least one nonfatal injury.
- 63% of large trucks crash involved two vehicles.
- 61% of all fatal crashes involving large trucks occurred on rural roads while 26% occurred on rural or urban interstate highways.
- 37% of all fatal crashes, 19 %of all injury crashes, and 20 % of all property damage only crashes involving large trucks occurred at night (from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am).
DUI refers to the driving or operating a motor vehicle or carrier while mentally or physically impaired as the result of consuming an alcoholic beverage or using a drug or narcotic. Compared with other types of dangerous driving, drunk driving is observed to be 380 times more likely to result in fatal crashes. For comparison, texting while driving, 23 times; drowsy driving, 5 times; and driving “high’ under the influence of marijuana, twice more likely to crash. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported a total of 10,874 deaths from drunk-driving crashes in 2017. This means that an average of one alcohol-impaired-driving fatality occurred every 48 minutes. These figures have decreased in the last three decades; however, drunk-driving crashes claim more than 10,000 lives per year. In 2010, the most recent year for which cost data is available, these deaths and damages contributed to a cost of $44 billion that year,” the NHSTA report explains. During the same year, the FMCSA reported that 1.8 percent of the 3,446 truck drivers who were involved in a fatal collision had a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of over 0.08 percent. BAC describes the percentage of alcohol in an individual’s blood stream. The law states that you are deemed unsafe to drive if you have a BAC of 0.08% and that your crash risk increases exponentially. Taking alcohol reduces brain function, impairs thinking, reasoning, and muscle coordination. These are the same abilities that are absolutely necessary to operate any vehicle safely. Once alcohol is in your system, it quickly slows your response time. For example, if the car in front of you brakes suddenly or a pedestrian crosses the street, your brain takes more time in processing the situation. Although it is illegal for drivers to operate a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, drunk driving still causes loss of lives. If you have been injured in a car accident, contact America’s Consumer Lawyer for a free consultation.
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