Updated at 2:26 p.m., Monday, March 12, 2007
Hawai'i has low rate for truck-crash fatalities
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Hawai'i has one of the lowest rates for fatal truck crashes while Wyoming and Arkansas are the deadliest states, according to a safety group that called Monday for tougher federal regulation.The safest states for truck crashes were Rhode Island and Massachusetts, based on the number of fatalities per 100,000 residents during 2005, the most recent year with complete figures. Hawai'I had the fifth lowest rate, 0.71 deaths for every 100,000 people.
Seven years since its creation by Congress to improve the safety of trucks, the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration "is still putting cargo over people," said Joan Claybrook, chair of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways. "This federal agency has failed miserably."
In 1999, when the agency was created, 5,380 people died in crashes with big trucks, Claybrook told a news conference by the Truck Safety Coalition. "That figure has barely budged." It was 5,212 in 2005, about 100 a week.
The agency's spokesman, Ian M. Grossman, was not immediately available to respond to the criticism.
Speakers at the event called on the agency to reduce the hours that truckers are allowed to drive without rest, increase safety inspections of big trucks, require on-board electronic monitors to ensure compliance with hours-of-service rules, and train drivers better.
The group said that in 2005, Wyoming had 6.09 deaths in big truck crashes per 100,000 residents, followed by Arkansas at 4.17, Oklahoma at 3.41, New Mexico at 3.27, Mississippi at 3.12, and West Virginia at 3.03.
The safest state, Rhode Island, had 0.09 fatalities per 100,000 residents, followed by Massachusetts at 0.38, Connecticut at 0.48, District of Columbia at 0.54, Hawai'i at 0.71, Alaska at 0.75, New York at 0.76, New Hampshire at 0.84 and Delaware at 0.95.
