With regard to the trucking industry, there can be no higher priority than improving safety. Over the past ten years, the fatal accident rate for all vehicles has been declining. However, commercial motor vehicle accidents, fatalities, and fatality rates are increasing. Last year 5,335 people died on U.S. roads in accidents involving heavy trucks. One out of eight traffic fatalities in 1997 resulted from a collision involving a large truck.
Large trucks are more likely to be involved in fatal, multiple vehicle crashes.
Over the past eight years, the Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration has not be able to significantly reduce the number of commercial motor vehicles or drivers operating on our roadways that are not fit to be in service. One in five trucks is operating with mechanical defects so serious that the truck is legally not allowed to continue the trip until the problems are corrected. Neither of these statistics has altered significantly since 1990. In 1997, the Virginia State police conducted 42,256 motor carrier inspections. A copy of the report I received from the Virginia State Police with those alarming statistics is attached.