Safety By the Hour on the Open Road

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 Safety first.  We've heard this as kids (before crossing the street) and as teenagers (when first learning to drive) and more than ever as adults (i.e. don't provide personal information online).  Speaking of safety, the transportation industry maintains stringent safety standards.  The departments (Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the National Highway Transportation Safety Board) are the most influential organizations that influence both commercial drivers and non-commercial drivers.  Protecting drivers' well-being is first and foremost, and thousands of dollars and man-hours are spent each year trying to figure out new ways to protect those on the open road. 

Take for example just a few initiatives put forth by the NHTSB:

■Traffic Safety Facts: Assessing the Attention-Getting Capability of Brake Signals: Evaluation of Candidate Enhanced Braking Signals and Features, Sponsored by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington D.C, June 2010 DOT HS 811 330

■Traffic Safety Facts: Development of a Simulation Model to Assess Effictivness and Safety Benefits of Enhanced Rear Brake Light Countermeasures, Sponsored by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington D.C, June 2010 DOT HS 811 331

■"Evaluation of Enhanced Brake Lights Using Surrogate Safety Metrics: Task 2 & 3 Report Development of a Rear Signaling Model and Work Plan for Large Scale Field Evaluation"- Sponsored by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington D.C, June 2010 DOT HS
811 329

While preventative measures are ideal, sometimes a retrospective reveals beneficial information.  Take for example truck crash data. According to FleetOwner.com, “
Truck collisions and near-collisions are low from January through June, but more than triple at points between July and November, according to a new analysis of truck crash data,” (www.fleetowner.com.)

Sean Kilcarr of FleetOwner.com wrote that video event recorders assessed more than 18 million unique driving events that resulted in two billion miles or traveled roads.  Kilcarr reported that, “DriveCam’s research found that collisions and near collisions in long-haul trucking are very low from January to June (between 1% and 5%), but start to spike in July, peaking at 18% and remaining above 14% through November,” (www.fleetowner.com.)

Analysis of the DriveCam data supports the statement that driving not just at night, but even later into the day is more dangerous than driving the early morning commute. Human factors including fatigue and difficulty seeing as the sun goes down are attributed to the likelihood of accidents occurring later in the day.