Many Long-Haul Truckers Don't Wear Seat Belts, CDC Survey Shows
"We know that using a seat belt is the single most effective intervention to prevent injury or death in a motor vehicle crash. However, in 2012, more than one in three truck drivers who died in crashes were not buckled up, a simple step which could have prevented up to 40 percent of these deaths," said CDC Principal Deputy Director Ileana Arias, Ph.D.
CDC published a new Vital Signs report calling attention to large truck crashes. About 700 drivers of large trucks or their passengers died in crashes during 2012 and an estimated 26,000 more were injured, the report says. Crashes are the leading cause of death for the 2.6 million workers in the United States who drive trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds, and more than one-third of the truck drivers killed in 2012 were not wearing a seat belt at the time they crashed, CDC reported March 3.
The report includes data from CDC's National Survey of U.S. Long-Haul Truck Driver Health and Injury, which the agency's personnel conducted by visiting 32 truck stops on interstate highways during 2010. Survey findings included that an estimated 14 percent of long-haul truck drivers reported not using a seat belt on every trip; more than one-third of them have been involved in one or more serious accidents during their driving careers; and the drivers who reported not wearing a seat belt also tended to engage in other unsafe driving behaviors, such as speeding and committing moving violations.
"We know that using a seat belt is the single most effective intervention to prevent injury or death in a motor vehicle crash. However, in 2012, more than one in three truck drivers who died in crashes were not buckled up, a simple step which could have prevented up to 40 percent of these deaths," said CDC Principal Deputy Director Ileana Arias, Ph.D. "Employers and government agencies at all levels can help improve truck driver safety and increase seat belt use among truck drivers by having strong company safety programs and enforcing state and federal laws."
The report says 317,000 crashes involving large trucks were reported to police in the United States during 2012, and the estimated cost of truck and bus crashes to the U.S. economy that year was $99 billion.