A truck driver safety study that points to causes of accidents could help RVers, too. The naturalistic study, meaning one that involves observing subjects in their driving environment, narrowed down common causes for crashes. Bottom line? Keep your hands on the wheel!
Hands off wheel, eyes off roadway, biggest risk
In a story published on ttnews.com (Transport Topics), researchers from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute described their study and findings. “We continue to find over and over again that visual menial tasks that take someone’s hands off the wheel and eyes off the roadway are going to be the highest risk,” said VTTI researcher Susan Soccolich. “That could be reaching for their lunchbox, or it could be using a cellphone.” Crash database analysis shows that driver distraction alone is a primary contributing factor in approximately 25%-30% of crashes
Is the truck driver safety study big enough to be relevant? Data was collected between 2013 and 2014 from 182 vehicles and 172 drivers traveling 2.7 million miles. Some of the more interesting (and relevant to RVers) findings were these:
- Talking and singing while behind the wheel was actually associated with a lower risk of being involved in a dangerous event.
- Overall cellphone tasks, like looking for or reaching for, dialing, holding, browsing, texting, answering and talking or listening on the hand-held cellphone, increased odds of a dangerous event by 2.8 to 4 times.
- Holding, browsing and texting all increased risk by over two times, and browsing increased the risk of a dangerous event approximately six times.
- Drowsy drivers were 1.7 to 3.7 times more likely to be involved in an at-fault safety critical event.
How do you do a truck driver safety study?
How do you perform a naturalistic truck driver safety study? Sensors and cameras were set up in trucks that allowed researchers to watch drivers during their regular driving scenarios at all times of the day. That included driving on roads that were both familiar and unfamiliar. That also included things “that drivers probably would not like known,” Soccolich revealed.
“Some people ask, ‘Don’t drivers change their behavior when they know you have a camera on them?’” Soccolich said. “We know that they often revert to their regular behavior within the same drive after the camera is installed.”
##RVT1128
I spent 33 years as an accident free tanker driver in California and have seen just about every kind of accident. In my opinion the number one cause of freeway accidents are distracted drivers in cars, or those who think they own the road. Unsafe lane changes, not using turn signals, following way too close, and speeding are some of the worst offenses. That so called “Study” was not written by a professional driver and is way off the mark.
Yep; Agree & just a Traveller who drove for Many years all over North America. Have to shake my Head at some of the poor Drivers out there including those who drive Semi’s!! Just sayin’!!