Seattle makes a big safety improvement to city trucks

Sharp-eyed Seattle residents may notice something different about SDOT trucks. Earlier this month, the Seattle Department of Transportation started installing side guard panels on city-owned heavy trucks. Seattle's Department of Transportation has started installing the side guards on the city-owned fleet. (Photo: Seattle DOT) Why truck side guards matter This may not seem like [...]

Why Safe Truckers are No Accident

Preliminary statistics for 2016 indicated that there was a 7-8% increase in fatalities in crashes involving trucks and buses. It’s easy to focus on the multitude of available safety systems for commercial truck fleets. But, there is much more to safe trucking than an electronic logging device and a crash mitigation system. The key element [...]

What you need to know about FCAM (and why all trucks should have it)

What is FCAM? We throw around a lot of trucking safety terms. The talk can get very technical. For example: NHTSA identifies forward collision avoidance and mitigation technology (FCAM) technologies as the systems that combine forward collision warning alert signals with collision mitigation braking.  There's a much easier explanation. 1) Radar detects a pending crash; and 2) Automatic braking prevent it. [...]

Yes, trucking is important. Now make it safer.

For more than 30 years, I have represented those injured or the families of those killed by preventable crashes on our highways. Many of these claims have involved semi-trucks and trucking companies. I read an article in Transport Topics expressing the importance of trucking. This op-ed was written by Garner Berry, a lawyer whose law firm defends [...]

2020-03-06T00:19:43+00:00In the News|

The Trucking Watchdog Explains: What does the USDOT do?

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT, or DOT) is the federal government agency in charge of transportation planning, funding, and safety. The top priorities at DOT are to keep the traveling public safe and secure, increase their mobility, and have our transportation system contribute to the nation's economic growth.  - transportation.gov   What does [...]

How simple truck side guards could save thousands of lives

Most city streets, with tight intersections and multiple stoplights, were not designed to accommodate tractor-trailer trucks alongside pedestrians and bicyclists. Large trucks have a high, wide gap between the truck's front and rear tires. This dangerous space is where 50% of the deaths from truck and bicycle collisions occur. A truck side guard is a [...]

2019-01-28T00:35:11+00:00Laws|
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