Trucking Alliance Adopts AAA Safety Tech Recommendations

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has been proactive in promoting policies that reduce accidents. Its mission is to prevent traffic fatalities and injuries by conducting research and educating the public about strategies to prevent accidents. The powerful Alliance for Driver Safety and Security, better known as the Trucking Alliance, has agreed that members must adhere to four truck safety methodologies recommended by the AAA Foundation for reducing truck accidents.

The four safety technologies recommended by the AAA Foundation for large trucks consist of:

• Lane departure warning systems
• Air disc brakes
• Automatic emergency braking systems
• Video onboard safety monitoring for driver performance

Other Trucking Alliance Standards

The Trucking Alliance already requires standards going beyond federal regulations for its membership, which include:

• Public liability insurance: higher insurance amounts than the federal minimum
• Driver training and hiring programs
• Truck speed limiters: these devices limit speed to 65 miles per hour
• Hair follicle testing: used to identify alcohol and drug use in drivers, and is more reliable than federal mandated pre-employment drug testing
• Electronic logging devices: installed to verify service compliance

Lives Saved by New Standards

In 2015, trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds were involved in more than 400,000 accidents in the United States, leaving 4,067 people fatally injured, and more than 116,000 injured. Many of the injured suffered permanent disabilities from the truck accidents. The AAA Foundation estimates that the installation of air disc brakes and automatic braking systems on all new commercial trucks will save around 90 lives annually, and 4,200 injuries. More lives should be saved if new and existing trucks have lane departure warning systems and video cameras installed. Those two technologies should prevent the loss of over 400 lives each year, and over 24,000 injuries.

The AAA Foundation stresses that the benefits of installing these technologies on new and existing large trucks far outweigh the cost of doing so. It notes that the economic value of installing these technologies considers the costs of emergency medical services and care, property damage, and productivity loss. The nonprofit organization also attempted to monetize the costs of pain and suffering and loss of quality of life. Due to the Trucking Alliance’s willingness to adopt these new safety technologies, drivers have better odds of arriving safely at their destination.

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