Fatal truck driver accidents
THE UNITED STATES – July 8, 2020 – According to an online news report published on Newsweek.com, tractor-trailer truck drivers represented the highest number of work-related deaths in the United States of America. Figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that over 915 trucker drivers were tragically killed in road-related accidents in just one twelve-month period. The next highest number of fatal workplace accidents in any industry was in farming and agriculture, where 260 fatalities occurred.
Studies indicate that approximately 88 percent of all 18-wheeler and commercial truck accidents result from human error. The trucking industry is now going through rapid changes, in part because of automation and self-driving technologies. This new safety and transportation efficiency technology have many people worried that these driverless vehicles will take over the transporting of goods. One more contributing factor increasing the number of trucks on the road is the substantial rise in small package shipments. Online shopping has created an increase in small package deliveries and impacting the type of shipments carried.
Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of fatal accidents in several other industries as well. By way of example, construction workers are also driving or riding in company vehicles and are at risk for injury or death in a motor vehicle accident while on the job. Many workers in the agricultural industry are often tragically injured or killed in accidents related to farm equipment or while transporting produce or animals. Data collected by government safety agencies state that nearly 40 percent of work-related deaths occurred in transportation-related accidents.
While more commercial truck drivers have the highest number of fatal accidents than any other profession, they did not have the highest death rate per capita. The logging industry had a higher rate of fatal accidents per capita than that of the trucking industry. However, the logging industry is much smaller, which leads to a lower total number of deaths annually. In other professions, most accidents were non-traffic accident-related accidents. For example, the most common form of workplace accidents is falling from high elevations.
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