You are driving home on the highway from work or a long day at school. In front of you, you begin to see the red lights as cars start breaking. Up in the distance you spot the familiar flashing of police cars and ambulances. As you creep on by you see what looks like it used to be a Honda Coup. There is a stretcher covered in a white blanket, and you know that someone has just died. The following day the newspaper reports that the driver of an 18-wheeler had fallen asleep at the wheel and you now have a face and a name to attach to that covered body: Terry Pierce, 16 years old, a member of the local high school wrestling team, smiling from obituaries.

Deaths due to trucks in the United States are on the rise. A consumer safety group reported in the December 4, 1998 issue of USA TODAY that “More than 5300 people died in highway crashes with big trucks last year.” That averages to about 15 deaths per day or the equivalent of a major airplane crash every two weeks. With more than 195 million Americans driving on a daily basis, and more than 59,000 trucks on the highway, you can see how the negligence of the trucking industry can have disastrous effects for thousands of people. Today we will investigate the hazards of the trucking industry. We will first discover how the drivers of the trucks contribute to the problem and second we will examine the problems with the actual trucks and their inspections and finally I will help to steer you in the direction of safe driving with solutions that each of us can utilize.

But first, we need to understand the dangers we face on the highway each time we drive near an 18-wheeled truck. According to the previously cited USA Today the number of cars has increased by about 100% over the past 20 years while the number of truck carriers has leapt 228%, from 18,000 to 59,000 tractor trailers on the road daily. Now that there are more trucks on the road, one would assume that regulations would have increased, yet that has not happened. Truckers have longer and more demanding trips to make in this day and age. Federal regulations, which have been in place since 1939, allow drivers 10 hours at the wheel after a minimum of eight hours of sleep.

In a 1998 issue of the Journal of Commerce, the National Transportation Safety Board found that fatigue is a contributing factor in as many as 30% to 40% of all heavy truck accidents. This is particularly tragic because the fatigue may actually be created by the law itself. The 1939 law is based on an 18-hour cycle, but our human bodies work on a 24-hour cycle. Not only are the laws concerning rest a contributing factor to fatigue but so too is the lack of rest stops. Tired truckers often have difficulties finding places to pull over and rest. In 21 states there are even limits to how long truckers may stay, forcing weary truckers back onto the road.

The truck drivers also increase their chances of falling asleep at the wheel. In order to meet deadlines truckers, often falsify their log books. To choose just one example, The Transportation Department’s inspector general is investigating A trucker who claims he followed the resting laws, yet was able to drive the 2,700 miles from Los Angeles to Washington in 48 hours. For this to be true, the driver would have had to maintain an average speed of 90 mph.

Now that we have examined how trucker drivers themselves contribute to the problem, we will look at how the actual trucks and their inspections have increased the number of deaths on US highways each year. The trucks themselves have defects that cause accidents. US Representative Frank Wolf stated in the January 22, 1999 issue of the Los Angeles Times that “more than one in five trucks on America’s highways operate with defects so serious that they are not safe enough to drive.” The biggest defect that occurs on these 18-wheelers can be found in poorly maintained and nearly inoperable brakes. Worsening the situation is the fact that in many states, such as Wisconsin, only 2% of the trucks passing through the state are inspected. Yet more than one third of the total amount of trucks passing through are suspected to have defective brakes. State Trooper Ray Walker of Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Carrier Division told The Washington Post on October 28, 1998. “I’ve been at an inspection where seven out of 10 brakes on an 18-wheeler were defective.” Before this rare inspection this truck was driving on our highways with seven defective brakes.

Not only are defective American trucks a problem but so too are the Mexican trucks. Starting on January 1 of the year 2000, trucks from Mexico will be allowed to travel anywhere in the United States. At present the trucks are allowed to drive only 20 miles into the US. 44% of these trucks entering the US from Mexico fail inspections at the border. A recent audit by the US inspector General’s Office found that nearly half the inspected Mexican trucks are leaking hydraulic fluids, operating with faulty brakes, or failing other safety checks. Not only are the trucks failing inspections but most border patrols are not inspecting the majority of the trucks.

According to the US Department of Transportation Inspector General’s office, only 17,332 of the 3.7 million Mexican trucks that entered the US last year were inspected. That leaves 3,682,668 trucks that are not being inspected. Of those trucks half are most likely unsafe to be driving on America’s highways. Starting next year these unsafe trucks will be allowed to drive on highways and roads near me and you.

Now that we have seen how trucker fatigue and faulty uninspected equipment contributes to truck related accidents and that this problem can only get worse in the next couple of years, I would like to examine some safety measures that can be taken on both the governmental level and the personal level. On a governmental level, one solution is to increase the hours of rest to a minimum of 10, followed by an increase of road time to 14 hours. This would put the truck drivers onto the 24-hour schedule that their bodies run on. According to Massachusetts truck inspector Mike LaPointe an Associated Press article on Feb 23, 1999, another proposal to curb fatigue, would be to increase the number of rest stops and parking spaces at these rest stops. This would allow for more truckers to find places to rest when they become tired on the road. Even if these two solutions are put into place the government still needs to combat the number of drivers who falsify their log books. In its January 19, 1999 issue the Los Angeles Times noted a proposal to place recorders on trucks. These recorders would record when the trucks are driving and at what speed making it virtually impossible for truckers not to follow the rest rules.

On a more personal level, there are actions that each of us can take while we are on the road ourselves. Most of us here in this room have driven hundreds or thousands of miles to speech competitions. We drive along side many of these trucks for miles of highway. According to the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Department there are several safety measures that we can all take to help prevent one of us from being one of the 5300 who die in truck related accidents. The first rule is never to follow a truck too closely. It is better to not follow a truck, but if you must, You should always leave at least a 2-second interval between you and the truck. If you do not, you put yourself in a blind spot. Never drive along side of a truck but if you must pass then you should make sure you have room to complete your pass without having to resort to excessive speed. You should not remain longer than necessary next to the truck, even if it is to allow your children or team-members time to try to signal to the driver to honk his horn. When a truck passes you, slow down a little to help make the passing time a little shorter.

Many trucks have phone numbers on the tailgates of their trucks in order to report unsafe driving. So if you do see a truck driver operating their vehicle unsafely, don’t be afraid to report them. It could save someone’s life.

Today we have looked at how truck drivers have contributed to truck related accidents, we then examined how the trucks themselves and the lack of inspections have only helped to worsen this problem, and finally we have discovered some solutions to help steer us in the direction of safe driving.

I encourage all of you to consider what I have presented you with today, the next time you are driving anywhere, which will probably be tonight as we return [home/to the hotel]. Please take the proper precautions: Don’t follow too close, avoid driving along side, and always presume that the driver of that truck is as bleary-eyed as a frosh who has studied all night for an exam. Terry Pierce would have been a college student this year: sensible regulation on the government’s part, or reasonable caution on the driver’s part could have made it so. Let’s not repeat that mistake.