Many of the school bus accidents recently investigated by the Board have involved large, heavy trucks. This is happening at a time when trucks are bigger and more powerful than ever. In the mid 1960s, the typical highway semi-trailer was 35 feet long. Today s standard trailers are 45 to 53 feet long. Triple combination unit trailers can extend over 90 feet.
Trailers are a full foot wider now.
In addition, we now have twice as many tractor trailers operating on our highways as we did 40 years ago and that s just the articulated trucks. At the same time, our automobile population has tripled. As an example, in September, the Safety Board launched an investigation into a school bus-large truck collision in Holmdel, New Jersey. A 67,000-pound dump truck struck a large school bus at an intersection. The truck first crashed into the school bus s left side by the driver s window, and then again along the left side, with the buckboard of the dump truck penetrating the bus side wall.