11/4/2009  Time to Dust Off the Image Polish
Commentary By Deborah Lockridge, Editor

You've heard the old saw: There's lies, damned lies, and then there's statistics.

And then there's statistics in the hands of trial lawyers trying to stir up lawsuits against trucking companies.

A group calling itself the American Association of Justice (in reality, the Association of Trial Laywers of America) recently sent out the results of an "analysis" they did on Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data. "More than 28,000 motor carrier companies have violated federal safety regulations, operating over 200,000 trucks," the release trumpeted.

Of course, the organization managed to imply that every one of those safety violations was of the immediately deadly variety. They also pointed out that the vast majority of people killed in accidents with trucks are the drivers and passengers of the cars that get hit. While true, that's a function of the relative size of the cars vs. the trucks, not a result of safety violations.

The lawyers also, of course, conveniently neglected to mention that the vast majority of car-truck collisions are the fault of the passenger vehicle driver, not the truck driver. Or that the truck-involved fatality rate is now at its lowest since the U.S. Department of Transportation began keeping those statistics in 1975.

The lawyers also tugged at the heartstrings of potential clients with the tragic story of Linda and John Giuliano, whose 23-year-old son was killed when his car slammed into the back of a broken-down tractor-trailer. The rig's brake hose had failed, said the release, after a small hole in it had previously been "fixed" by the drivers with a toothpick and electrical tape, "while the trucking company dispatcher complimented them on their resourcefulness. They drove for two hours until the brakes ultimately failed, passing numerous repair shops where a $12 fix would have made the hose safe again."

The press release from the lawyers' group was only one of a string of recent right hooks aimed straight at giving the trucking industry a black eye.

The debate over the highway reauthorization program, especially proposals to improve freight transportation efficency by increasing truck size and weights, has stirred up our old friend CRASH - the anti-trucking group "Citizens for Reliable And Safe Highways." It and a handful of other safety advocacy groups that are frequent trucking critics sent out a press release and a letter to Congress in response to a provision in a Senate highway bill for Maine to allow 100,000 pound, six-axle trucks on I-95 in a one-year pilot program. The group called it an "anti-safety provision," and said the exemption would make the highway "even more treacherous."

Even more outrageous was a comment reported in the Birmingham News from a mother opposed to a proposed intermodal facility in McCalla, Ala.: "How can you guarantee me a truck driver won't come to the school, snatch my kid and carry him away?"

Good grief.

How do you fight these kinds of slurs?

Of course, sometimes we're our own worst enemy. Drivers and dispatchers who cut corners, whether it's on hours of service or repairing brake lines, in a short-sighted attempt to get the load there on time. The drivers who tailgate, and the ones who throw out urine-filled soda bottles out the window. One big step is to set policies and training for your company to discourage those kinds of activities, to take steps to hire the safest, most professional drivers you can find.

Another step is to accentuate the positive. Help get out the good stories - the Highway Heroes, the Highway Angels. Support feel-good programs that reach out to youngsters like Trucker Buddy or Chattanooga's annual Touch-a-Truck. Get a driver on America's Road Team or one of the state groups. Develop a relationship with your local media, so they come to you for the good news. Don't let the trial lawyers, the safety advocates and paranoid moms own the headlines.

From the October 2009 issue of Heavy Duty Trucking.




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