Trucking Safety
INTRODUCTION (THESIS, ATTENTION GETTER AND PREVIEW)
In a Department of Transportation survey conducted this year, and published in the U.S. News & World Report, almost 30% of the 18 wheeler truck drivers asked reported falling asleep at the wheel during the last month. The 16 hours a day of driving, often totaling more than 70 hours a week, kills an average of 56 motorists a day. (Lavelle, 1999) Today’s roadways are not only perceived by the public to be unsafe, they are unsafe and 18-wheeler trucks are the reason why. Tractor-trailer drivers that do not adhere to the rules of the road often compromise the protection of commuters that drive on US highways.
The intent of this argumentative paper is to uncover the safety issues that 18-wheeler trucks have introduced to our roadways. The fatal combination of speed, fatigue and lack of enforcement to the laws; have led to a heightened public awareness of this industry’s problems, sadly at the price of many deaths and injuries. We intend to identify how speed, lack of sleep and disobedience of traffic laws directly effects your safety while sharing the roads with these trucks.
BODY
There are trucking company policies and federal laws in place that clearly identify load limitations, travel hours, and logbook policies. Why are they not being adhered to? Clearly all of these factors play an integral role in safety. The result of breaking the laws and ignoring the federal and company policies is deaths on the highway. The policies and laws were created to protect the drivers and the general highway commuters, yet are sadly outdated and most often completely ignored. An independent truck driver from Winter Haven, FL states “if you run legal, ...