I know that sitting here at my keyboard, I cannot prevent crashes but I hope I can highlight things that I think need to be highlighted. Then, I hope you, my fellow-trucking industry professionals can take steps that will help make society safer.
Back in January I quoted Joe Rajkovacz of the Western States Trucking Association (WSTA) as he stated that truckers and industry professionals needed to do more than take a “just say no” policy to every safety proposal the government brought forth.
And he’s right. Listen, you and I both know it won’t be a bunch of pencil-pushers who figure out how to make our roads safer. It will be our drivers; those of you who are on the roads 200+ days per year. You all see more and know more and have more experience than the rest of us. And you can either help lead us toward safer roads and highways or you can merely oppose anything that feels like a restriction…
However if our industry professionals merely opposes anything our government puts forth as safety promotions, we’ll all lose credibility. We have to speak up and offer constructive suggestions. And when new safety regulations are put out, we have to comply. That seems obvious but I write this in response to NTSB’s release of their investigation into a fatal accident in Illinois in 2014 where the truck-driver had falsified driver logs, been awake for 35 consecutive hours, and had driven roughly 1000 miles in that time.
Was that driver one bad apple? Yes, he was. Do most drivers follow the rules? Yes. But we need to police each other on this kind of stuff. Otherwise we will all be seen as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
Thanks for reading.