‘Families Deserve Better’: U.S. Lawmakers File Bills To Prevent Fatal Truck Crashes

Jul. 16--Legislation introduced Tuesday in Washington could help prevent horrific highway crashes by requiring big trucks to have automatic braking systems, its backers say.

The Star reported in a 2018 investigation that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had failed to mandate changes, such as automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems, that over the past two decades might have averted thousands of rear-end truck crashes.

Under legislation introduced Tuesday by Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, new commercial trucks would be required to have the systems that alert drivers when they are approaching a vehicle, and then automatically slow down the truck if the driver fails to brake.

Members of the Truck Safety Coalition stood with the representatives outside the Capitol on Tuesday to push for the bills. One of those advocates was Pamela Biddle, whose 23-year-old son and ex-husband were killed in a 2017 crash in Indiana. Biddle, a former Kansas City TV station executive, was featured in The Star's 2018 report.

"What good is implementing all of these safety features in cars -- like emergency braking, air bags, seat belts, crumble zones -- when a truck, like the one that killed my son, can barrel down the road, not apply the brakes, collide with a car and render all those things I just listed completely and totally useless?" Biddle said at the news conference.

Schneider National, a large trucking company, installed collision mitigation systems in 2012 on all of its new trucks, Biddle said, and saw a 68% decrease in rear-end crashes.

Johnson said he introduced similar legislation in 2015 after a truck crash killed five nursing students outside of Savannah, Georgia.

The other legislation, sponsored by Rep. Chuy García, D-Illinois, and cosponsored by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pennsylvania, would increase the minimum insurance that truck owners must carry to reflect inflation and current medical costs.

The minimum has been set at $750,000 since the 1980s, García said at the news conference. He said the minimum should be almost 6.5 times higher to reflect inflation and current medical costs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Families shouldn't have to go through bankruptcy because a family member died or became severely injured with life-long disabilities," García said. "Families deserve better."

Increasing the insurance minimums for truck crashes would both better represent the increase in medical expenses since the 1980s and encourage insurance companies to look deeper at the trucking companies they're representing, Cartwright said.

Kate Brown of Illinois, who also attended Tuesday's news conference, said her son was left permanently disabled after a trucking accident.

He underwent more than 20 surgeries that cost over $5 million in medical bills, she said. The minimum insurance, which she pointed out is only per crash rather than per injured person, hardly covered her son's medical expenses. Brown ended up taking money from her retirement funds to pay for her son's medical expenses, she said.

Cartwright introduced similar legislation in 2013.

More than 4,700 people were killed in crashes involving trucks weighing 10,000 pounds or more in 2017, according to a report by the NHTSA.

Experts say many truck wrecks, which are among the most devastating, can easily be prevented by technology.

"While trucking is a vital and cherished and necessary part of our country's commerce," said Catherine Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, at the news conference, "we can and must do more to safeguard the public from the dangers associated with large trucks."

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