April 1st NHTSA released the numbers of truck related deaths and injuries for 2022. I wish it was an April Fools joke.
That year 5,936 people, some of them the truck drivers themselves, died in large truck related crashes. Over 160,000 people were injured.
I’ve been working with the Truck Safety Coalition for almost twenty years. And except for a few years when the death and injury numbers dipped a bit, the horrific losses have climbed each year.
No one but us and a few other small safety groups seem to notice these unacceptable numbers. I’m heartbroken. My heart breaks every year when the numbers are released. I don’t understand why everyone isn’t shocked and horrified. Why it isn’t national news.
The Truck Safety Coalition’s statement about the NHTSA report is on our webpage, but I’ll link to it here. And if I could ask you to please check out a few of the stories of people who have been stolen from us, maybe you’ll realize, as I do, that these aren’t numbers we’re talking about. These are people. And families. They are someone’s child, mother, brother, husband, wife. My dad.
After you’ve composed yourself and dried your eyes, please donate to help us make our voices louder. You’ll see the donate button on all our website pages.
Sixteen people will die today in a large truck crash. Take a minute and look around at your family, friends, coworkers, neighbors.
Which sixteen will die today?
Change Is Hard 
April 4, 2024 at 9:12 am
So very sorry!
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April 4, 2024 at 10:04 am
And yet they continue to allow larger and larger trucks on the roads. Hugs.
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April 4, 2024 at 10:55 am
When something hits home, literally, in your case, we are made to realise the numbers. Like disease. They are there but unless it touches us, they remain far-off numbers.
Good on you for sharing and working on this issue for the past twenty years, Dawn. It’s awful to lose someone in an accident that should not have happened in the first place.
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April 5, 2024 at 2:00 pm
Heartbreaking statistics. In a country that has so much, why we can’t do better to protect everyone is a crying shame. Keep preaching, Dawn. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and a problem this huge needs to be tackled continuously.
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April 5, 2024 at 9:37 pm
That’s very sad. I had a friend who was killed by a dump truck driver. The truck driver was texting, driving and on drugs and ran into my friend Kirk Beres’ small pick-up truck. They had to get the Jaws of Life to open the truck to get Kirk out and he was airlifted to a nearby hospital with many internal injuries and broken bones. He died two days later. This driver had already been in an accident the month before and still had his license. I wasn’t aware of the disposition of this case, but I wanted to verify Kirk’s death was in 2022 for this comment, so Googled his obituary and the article came up. I will send it separately if you’d like to read it and in case it goes to your SPAM filter. Kirk loved animals and fed many feral cats, so in lieu of flowers/we made a donation to a local animal shelter.
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April 5, 2024 at 9:38 pm
Dawn – here is the news article about my friend Kirk that I mentioned. He was originally from Michigan, but moved to Florida many years ago.
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2024/03/05/florida-man-faces-vehicular-homicide-charge-in-crash-that-killed-motorist/72838557007/
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April 6, 2024 at 7:13 am
oh Linda. If they had charged him with something significant for the first crash, he might not have been on the road to kill your friend and injure the others. My dad’s crash was similar, hit from behind while he was slowed in traffic. it happens frequently like that. Distracted . sleepy. high on drugs. speeding. The driver in your friend’s case should be in jail for a very long time, and the owner of the truck, who allowed him to drive, should pay the families.
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April 6, 2024 at 8:42 pm
Yes, it made me sick to hear of this accident Dawn. I was surprised with his severe injuries he didn’t die at the scene. Kirk had no family but he had a buddy who kept me apprised what was going on, but he didn’t tell me about this latest news. I hope he does go to jail – someone should pay the price and yes the trucking company owner should as well. One-time neighbors of ours had a son who was injured in a motorcycle accident. A Banner Linen Company step van was delivering work uniforms and slammed into Damon’s motorcycle. Not only was he severely injured with multiple broken bones, but the helmet he was wearing shattered and he had significant brain injuries. He was never the same. The parents sued Banner and the motorcycle helmet company and got a large settlement, but Damon was essentially a vegetable after that accident. The way people drive anymore is like the Wild Wild West.
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April 7, 2024 at 11:42 am
So sad. When we were transferring to Vienna for our post cruise, we noticed all the tractor trailer trucks in the slow lane. We asked the bus driver about it. He said in many parts of Europe, they can only be in the slow lane and are speed controlled.
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April 7, 2024 at 2:08 pm
Europe is way ahead of the US on safety issues. Heck the entire industrialized world is way ahead of the US. Though it does seem a bit split in Canada. You have double 53 foot trailers which we don’t allow…and then again I saw signs that required all trucks to have speed limiters there as well.
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April 9, 2024 at 5:41 am
Oh Dawn, that’s terrible. Unfortunately people tend to be apathetic until bad things hit home. Bringing awareness and more importantly, faces, is the best way to get the message out there, and that is exactly what you are doing. I’m sorry the numbers aren’t reflecting your hard work.
Hugs ❤
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April 17, 2024 at 1:39 am
We have far too many trucks on the roads here, Dawn. The problem is that the drivers take “uppers” to stay awake, but that isn’t always successful, then there are fatalities. The railways used to transport goods far more than they do these days, yet they a removing train lines – I don’t understand their logic. 😦
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April 17, 2024 at 12:03 pm
Yes, when the trucking industry wants longer trailers, or bigger double trailers, or (HEAVEN FORBID!) triple trailers we like to remind them that what they’re doing is creating TRAINS on our roads.
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April 18, 2024 at 2:27 am
They are! I admire you for being involved in trying to prevent more unnecessary fatalities. ❤
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