Texas Has the Most 18-wheeler Traffic Fatalities
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If you commute to work, especially on I-35 or I-10, you probably see many 18-wheeler trucks traveling in both directions. In traffic or out of traffic, fast or slow; big rigs can be intimidating, and if an accident does occur, most passenger cars are not equipped to take on one of these rigs. With problems such as truckers speeding and tailgating, our highways become a dangerous place to share with a vehicle that weighs over 80,000 pounds.
In 2007, Texas had the most traffic fatalities involving an 18-wheeler than any other state. Last year in Texas there were a total of 4845 traffic fatalities, 455 of those involved an 18-wheeler, as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Across the nation last year one out of every nine traffic fatalities involved an 18-wheeler. In addition, 101,000 people in America were injured in an accident with a big-rig.
For more information, check out this website for Road Safe America, an organization dedicated to making the roads safer for passenger cars and trucks. They are joining with the leading trucking companies in a major effort to make the nation's highways safer by petitioning for trucking industry regulations that would slow the maximum speed of large trucks. According to their website:
When tractor-trailers and cars collide in a fatal crash, 98 percent of the fatalities occur in the cars. It's clear why: for a car to have the force of a tractor-trailer, which weighs 80,000 pounds, traveling at 60 mph, it would have to be speeding at over 300 mph. Limiting trucks to reasonable speeds will make our highways significantly safer while preserving truckers' important jobs.
This is one regulation that would certainly make me feel a little safer on the roadway.