Deaths keep rising in Pa. truck crashes
New figures put new pressure on feds to pass long-sought safety regulations
WASHINGTON — More people died on Pennsylvania highways in crashes involving large trucks in 2022 than in 42 other states, according to new federal statistics.
The most recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures show truck- related deaths in Pennsylvania rose 14.2%, from 162 in 2021 to 185 in 2022, providing new urgency as the federal transportation officials finally moved ahead with long- delayed safety rules.
Nationally, deaths in crashes involving large trucks rose by 1.9%, from 5,821 in 2021 to 5,936 in 2022, even as overall traffic fatalities dropped by 1.7% from 43,230 to 42,514.
“I don’t know how it’s not a wakeup call,” said Harry Adler, principal at the Institute for Safer Trucking.
The increase in fatalities comes in the midst of efforts by NHTSA and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to draft longsought rules requiring new trucks to have automatic emergency braking and to have devices that limit how fast they can go.
Both regulations initially were recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board in 1995. That was almost 30 years ago. Meanwhile, other countries have adopted the technologies. “We see a very familiar pattern — a heavy truck coming upon stopped traffic and the truck not being able to stop in time,” said Peter Kurdock, general counsel for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “The thing that’s so frustrating is that it’s no mystery why these crashes occur and the solutions are not a mystery either.”
In Pennsylvania, the oneyear increase of 23 fatalities was higher than any state other than Illinois, New York and Arizona. Shaun Kildare, research director for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, called it a “markedly higher increase in fatalities for a state which had a number of incidents to begin with.”
The state Department of Transportation said earlier that there were 145 fatal crashes involving heavy trucks in 2022 — those weighing more than 26,000 pounds. That was the most in five years, the department said.
“A top factor in these crashes was aggressive driving, including driving too fast for conditions, careless passing or lane changes, improper or careless turning, tailgating, and proceeding without clearance after a stop,” PennDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Kuntch said.
Not buckling up for safety
Another reason for the increased number of fatalities: Truck drivers and passengers not wearing their seatbelts, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The agency’s analysis of data found there were 86 more truck occupant fatalities in 2022 than a year earlier, or 75% of the 115 additional deaths in truck crashes.
Overall, 1,095 of the 5,936 casualties were truck drivers or passengers, the FMCSA said.
George O’Connor, a spokesman for the OwnerOperator Independent Drivers Association, cited high turnover in the trucking industry, resulting in more inexperienced drivers. He said the federal government did not require a certain number of hours behind the wheel to obtain a commercial driver’s license.
“Experienced, welltrained drivers have been proven time and time again to be the safest drivers,” Mr. O’Connor said. “The roadway is a trucker’s workplace and they want to make it home safely just like every other road user and should be equipped with the proper training to keep our roads safe for all road users.”
There also is the ongoing problem with driver fatigue, and violations for drug and alcohol abuse, Mr. Kurdock said.
But safety advocates say that the automatic emergency braking and speed limiters would prevent some crashes and reduce the severity of others.
“Both of those are datadriven research based rulemaking efforts that we know will make a difference,” said Zach Cahalan, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition.
Industry opposition
Proposals to limit a truck’s speed have run into opposition by some in the industry. Mr. O’Connor said that having cars and trucks moving at different speeds could lead to more crashes, not fewer.
“The physics are the physics,” Mr. O’Connor said. “If you have speed differentials on the highways, you’re inviting more interactions between vehicles.”
Mr. Kildare, though, said that the difference in speed won’t be that significant and reducing how fast trucks are going will reduce the severity of crashes then they occur.
“We’re trying to keep speed down,” he said. “You can drop the speed, you would have a very drastic impact on the energy going into the collision. ... We’re not talking about restricting these vehicles to speeds that are so far outside prevailing speed limits.”