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Safety of 'Big Rig' Drivers Ignored, Says St. Louis Attorney on the Safety Forum

18 November 1999

Carr, Korein & Tillery: Safety of 'Big Rig' Drivers Ignored, Says St. Louis Attorney on the Safety Forum

    ST. LOUIS, Nov. 18 -- "Too many tractor-trailer drivers are
killed in crashes that are easily survivable," and truck manufacturers,
federal regulators and the unions that represent truckers are doing nothing
about it, according to Martin L. Perron, an attorney in St. Louis, Missouri
representing a "big rig" driver who became a quadriplegic when his truck was
involved in an exit ramp tip-over in Tennessee.  "This crash illustrates the
total disregard for crashworthiness of large trucks or for the safety of their
drivers," Perron said.
    Each year about 600 large-truck occupants are killed and about 30,000 are
injured in highway crashes, according to data collected by the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "The design of large truck cabs ignores
many basic, and long-recognized principles that could actually protect truck
drivers when their rigs crash," Perron said.
    "It's true that in multiple vehicle crashes, smaller vehicles and their
occupants are at a disadvantage when a large truck is involved," Perron
acknowledged.  Nonetheless, "the debate about large truck safety often makes
truck drivers the scapegoat and ignores the need to build truck cabs that
protect truck drivers when they crash. The cabs of large trucks are designed
to do little more than keep out wind and rain," he said.
    As Perron investigated the relatively minor crash that catastrophically
injured his client, he discovered the virtual absence of federal regulation or
efforts by truck manufacturers or trucker trade unions to provide rudimentary
safety measures to protect truck drivers, such as windshields that don't pop
out, doors that stay shut and the same kind of "safety cage" provided to car
occupants.  Perron decided to share on The Safety Forum (http://www.safetyforum.com)
what he's learned about this ignored area of vehicle safety.  Perron joins a
growing number of attorneys who are using The Safety Forum to educate the
public and policymakers about issues they've litigated when people get hurt.
    "Conventional wisdom holds that tractor trailer crashes involve such
tremendous forces that it is unreasonable to expect that any driver could
escape without serious injury.  This view is often shared by truckers
themselves who have accepted the high risk associated with their occupation as
inevitable.  For the most part, truck manufacturers, trucking companies,
federal regulators and even the Teamsters, the largest of the truck driver
unions, behave as though the big, very powerful tractors pulling freight
across the country represent the very best in the world in terms of
engineering and materials, but safe design of the occupant space of heavy
trucks has been ignored by all," Perron said. He explained that "The total
weight of heavy, long-haul, trucks is limited by federal regulation.
Manufacturers and the companies that buy their trucks would rather dedicate
that weight to paying cargo than to stronger, safer cabs for drivers."

    Contact:  Martin Perron   314-241-4844