ALABAMA Facts
On LOGGING Trucks
NATIONAL Statistics

Alabama

• Large trucks were involved in 3,455 crashes in Alabama in 2003, resulting in 147 fatalities—a 15% increase from 2002, which recorded 128 fatalities. (Large trucks are defined as those with gross tonnage greater than 10,000 pounds).
• In addition, 1,821 people were injured in crashes involving large trucks in Alabama in 2003.
• In 2003, Alabama ranked tenth in the nation in number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes.
• Alabama has consistently ranked in the top 15 worst states for fatal crashes involving large trucks, even though it only ranks 23rd in the nation in population.
• From 1993 to 2003, 1,728 people lost their lives in Alabama in traffic crashes involving large trucks. An average of 157 people lose their lives in large truck crashes in Alabama every year.
• Truck traffic is expected to grow throughout the state over the next 20 years, with much of the growth occurring in urban areas and on the interstate highway system. Freight shipments were expected to grow from 310 million tons in 1998 to 469 million tons in 2010, according to the Federal Department of Transportation.
• Alabama State officials and trucking industry leaders met Dec. 20th to discuss large truck safety issues in the wake of several serious interstate crashes:

  - An 18-wheeler cattle truck overturned Dec. 2, on I-10 in Mobile, killing a driver in a separate vehicle.
  - A week later a second cattle truck overturned in the same curve, but caused no injuries.
  - In October a tanker-truck exploded and destroyed the I-20/59 bridge to I-65 in Birmingham.
  - Earlier in December, another 18-wheeler lost its cargo (a 40-foot, 45,000-pound industrial drive shaft) and tore two holes in the I-65 bridge to I-459 in Hoover.

  
  

Logging

• According to the latest Commodity Flow Survey by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Alabama moved 39.5 million short tons of logs and other wood in the rough in 1997. (39,588 weight in thousand short tons), Most of these products moved less than 50 miles.
• Unlike interstate commercial carriers, intrastate Logging trucks are exempted from length restrictions, and from having to use wind deflection devises.

National

"Based on their numbers on the road and the amount they travel, large trucks (tractor-trailers, single-unit trucks, and some cargo vans weighing more than 10,000 pounds) account for more than their share of highway deaths. Large trucks have higher fatal crash rates per mile traveled than passenger vehicles, although a higher percentage of large truck travel occurs on interstates, the safest roads. Most deaths in large truck crashes are passenger vehicle occupants rather than occupants of large trucks. The main problem is the vulnerability of people traveling in smaller vehicles. Trucks often weigh 20-30 times as much as passenger cars."—Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

• In 2003, there were 58,512 total vehicles involved in fatal crashes in the U.S.
• Of those, 4,669 were fatal crashes involving large trucks.
• Large trucks are more likely to be involved in a fatal multi-vehicle crash than are passenger vehicles.
• Most fatal truck crashes occurred in rural areas (68 percent) during the daytime (66 percent) and on weekdays (78 percent).
• About 27 percent of all large truck drivers involved in fatal truck crashes had at least one prior speeding conviction compared to 19 percent of the passenger vehicle drivers involved in fatal crashes.

Source: NHTSA Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)