Berm Notes

This month, I was reading through a popular automotive magazine and came across an interesting trucking editorial. The picture for the article depicted a truck smashing into the rear of a car while a female driver looked frightened as she viewed the scene in her rear view mirror. Another picture shows a vehicle bursting into flames while people rushed in to help. I thought this would be an interesting article to read and was surprised to see this in an automotive publication.

As I read the facts and figures, most were accurate and the tone seemed as if it could have come from a trucking industry periodical. The editor fairly writes about how the crash rate ebbs and flows with the economy. When trucks are busy on the highways, there is more opportunity for involvement in a crash. The article noted in a sidebar a recent proposal to limit truck speed. Advantages were noted in regards to safety and fuel mileage however they are not enthusiastic if the speed limiters would apply to automobiles.

In a positive note, the article gave praise to truck drivers in the trucking industry for our crash rate per mile travelled. The piece ended on an interesting note by stating that when it comes down to cars versus 18-wheelers, the cars need all the advantages they can get. What I found noticeably missing from this article was any mention on how automobiles or light trucks can do their part in aiding safety on our nation’s highways. Also missing, were the fatal crash study figures in which research from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute results revealed that car drivers were assigned fault 81 % of the time verses 27 % for truck drivers. In fact, the follow pages of this auto magazine sing the praises of new sport model cars that now offer top speeds of nearly 200 mph and in one case over that speed. The new cars include capabilities today that were not heard of in years past. Many of these new models can outperform most race cars of the not so distant past.

Upon reading, I had to ask myself how do these incredible high performance vehicles help with the goal which was stated at the end of their article regarding truck verses automobile safety.