Truck Safety in the Age of Information

Details

• Personal Author:
  Biddle, Elyce A. ; Husting L
• Description:
  It is near dusk. An 80,000 pound tractor-trailer on a limited-access interstate makes an ascending left turn while climbing a grade in hilly terrain. The driver has been traveling all day and must maintain the maximum legal speed to reach the terminal before exceeding Federal Hours of Service Regulations. To maintain speed, the driver is forced to downshift repeatedly as the truck loses momentum on the rising grade. A call from dispatch flashes on the internal monitor. The setting sun flashes across the windshield, briefly obsuring vision, as the vehicle moves in and out of the shadows of the higher-elevation foothills. While the driver reflexively reaches for his sunglasses, a low-fuel light comes on. The truck builds up speed to climb the next rise. The road ahead curves more sharply as the truck rapidly approaches a turn that overloads the outside wheels. Over that rise, not yet visible, is a disaster in the making: Twelve car lengths ahead, an older van with weak rear lights and a nearly flat tire is struggling up the grade, at well below the minimum legal speed. Under a traditional scenario, the tractor-trailer would have struck the van in the next minute at best causing vehicular damage, at worst, losing lives. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Automobiles Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Accident-rates Accident-statistics Drivers Injuries Injury-prevention Occupational-accidents Occupational-hazards Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-research Traumatic-injuries Truck-drivers Trucking

  More +
• ISBN:
  0754642062
• Publisher:
  Ashgate Publishing
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Book
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  247-268
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028968
• Citation:
  Trucking in the age of information. Belman D, White C III, eds. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2005 Jan; :247-268
• Editor(s):
  Belman D; White C III
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Trucking in the age of information
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:022b5f6bfae6c35dfea27d54488a405825cf5db135ee289505c1fce3447f09a23123fdb16fdbc667560d5953711c2c20c8885b9cd6a0acc6bf6dde71211e1f60
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/190054/cdc_190054_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.13 MB ]