6.6 C
New York

Missouri Crash Fatalities Involving Trucks Up. Who’s To Blame?

Published:

Missouri Crash Fatalities Involving Trucks Up. Who Is To Blame?Distracted car drivers have truck drivers running defense on Missouri roads.

KFVS in Cape Girardeau recently spoke with truck drivers and the Missouri Highway Patrol about Missouri crash statistics.

The number of crash fatalities that involve a truck in Missouri are up; however the Missouri Highway Patrol said that crash data shows that more often than not the car driver is responsible for the crash, not the truck driver. 

“‘Missouri Highway Patrol Trooper Clark Parrott said between 2010 and 2011, the number of fatalities in tractor-trailer wrecks went from 105 to 120. Parrott said so far, in 2012, fatal wrecks are up 22 percent. Of those, he said two-thirds were not wearing a seatbelt,” the station reported.

The truck drivers who spoke with KFVS said that they often see car drivers texting, driving too fast or too slow, cutting off other cars, and driving dangerously. The drivers said they do everything they can to avoid getting into an accident with a car.

“I just try to back off, cars have a bad tendency, especially on the two lane to pass you and then slow down, I don’t know what the reason is other than they don’t like to be behind a truck, but it just puts you in danger, then I have to back off and worry about rear ending them, it’s just another thing boiling down to they don’t pay attention,” said Ben Tate, a truck driver.

Other drivers echoed Tate’s advice.

“Their attention to road isn’t what it should be,” said Randy Watson, a truck driver. “Give us plenty of room and don’t be tailgating,”

“At 65 miles an hour it takes three football fields to stop this truck, I got 18 brakes, but that don’t mean I can stop 18 times as fast, so when you’re swinging around, and whipping in front of me, I can’t guarantee ya I can get it shut down, we’ll try, but that’s all we can do,” said Bennett.

“People seem to think it’s a game around a truck, cut them off, and not pay attention,” said Tate.

“Be careful out there, we’re trying to watch for ya,” said Roger Bennett, a truck driver.

Drivers, how many wrecks with cars have you narrowly avoided because of distracted or dangerous car drivers?

 

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

Get the hottest daily trucking news

This Week in Trucking

Videos