When cars and commercial trucks collide in Florida, is it typically the people riding in the smaller passenger vehicle who lose their lives or suffer the most severe injuries. Many car-on-truck crashes share similar characteristics, and many result from commercial trucks slamming into the back of smaller vehicles.
Per Trucking Info, rear-end collisions involving commercial trucks have become so commonplace across the nation that transportation safety authorities are considering enacting new guidelines intended to help prevent them.
What the new rule would mandate
If passed, the new mandate would require trucks of a certain weight to have an automatic emergency braking system to help reduce the number and severity of rear-end crashes involving cars and trucks on the nation’s roadways. These systems apply the truck’s brakes in certain situations even if the truck driver fails to do so. Under the proposed rule, the mandate would apply to any vehicle weighing over 10,000 pounds.
How the new rule should help
Safety advocates believe the new rule, if passed, would help prevent many of the about 60,000 year-end crashes that occur each year involving heavy vehicles rear-ending lighter ones. More specifically, they believe the proposed rule change would save about 155 lives and prevent 8,814 injuries and 19,118 car wrecks each year. Supporters of the proposed rule change also argue that it helps account for human error by ensuring large vehicles brake when necessary, regardless of the truck driver’s actions.
Currently, many trucks on the road lack this emergency braking feature. However, the part is more common on newer trucks than on older ones.
