Careless Drivers Who Cause Serious Crashes
Truck side mirror

Speeding is a careless driving behavior that can cause serious crashes.  An organization focused on preventing catastrophic truck accidents recently revealed just how prevalent speeding drivers are today.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is an organization focused on commercial trucking safety. In July 2022 it held Operation Safe Driver Week, an annual event designed to stop dangerous drivers. CVSA announced the results in late November.

Law enforcement in the United States and Canada cited commercial truck drivers and passenger drivers for unsafe driving – more than 35,000 in all from July 10 through July 16.

CVSA focused 2022 Operation Safe Driver Week on speeding drivers. When announcing the results, CVSA noted that speeding was a contributing factor in almost a quarter of all fatal crashes in the last 10 years. It also pointed to a trucking industry report that showed commercial truck drivers who were ticketed for speeding were 47% more likely to be in a crash.

Speeding Drivers Causing Fatal Crashes

In its most recent report on speeding, released last June (“Speeding”), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that 28% of fatal traffic accidents in 2020 were related to speeding. The number of speeding-related fatal crashes that year jumped 17% over 2019.

In a report released in December (“Early Estimates of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities and Fatality Rate by Sub-Categories Through June 2022”), NHTSA projects 5,600 people died in speed-related crashes in the first half of 2022.

Speeding was the most ticketed driving offense, for both commercial truck drivers and passenger vehicle drivers, in 2022 Operation Safe Driver Week.

Nearly 25,000 commercial truck drivers were pulled over in the United States alone. About 3,100 truck drivers received speeding tickets. Another 4,700 received a warning for this reckless driving behavior.

More than 9,500 U.S. passenger vehicle drivers were ticketed for speeding.

Distracted Truck Drivers

In addition to speeding, the top dangerous behaviors by commercial truck drivers, in terms of citations and warnings, included:

Distracted commercial truck drivers can be especially dangerous.  With fully loaded rigs weighing as much as 80,000 pounds, a distracted truck driver who is not paying attention can cause catastrophic, multi-vehicle crashes.

Federal law prohibits commercial truck drivers from using a hand-held cell phone while driving.  This includes talking on the phone, as well as reading or sending texts.

CVSA made special note of the dangers of distracted driving. In 2020, the organization reported, distracted drivers killed more than 3,100 people in the United States.

The top cited passenger vehicle driver behaviors were almost identical. The only difference was “following too closely” was among the top five, while “failure to obey traffic control device” was not.

When drivers behave irresponsibly, such as driving over the speed limit or driving distracted, their careless actions can kill innocent victims. As was found in one week last July, there are an alarming number of careless drivers on the road.

Victims of careless drivers can take action. If you were seriously injured or lost a loved one in a crash caused by another driver, a motor vehicle accident lawyer can pursue your legal right to just compensation from those responsible.

The choice of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.

Authored by Gray Ritter Graham. Posted in Blog January 25, 2023.

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