Terminator Trucks: Is Florida Keeping us Safe from Truck Accidents?

Unless your job is inherently dangerous, the most dangerous thing you probably do each day is drive on the road with big tractor-trailer trucks. The statistics paint the picture. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), each year over 5,000 people die in U.S. truck accidents and over 150,000 are injured. All we have to do is look over at a semi-truck on the road and common sense tells us they are dangerous because of their sheer size and speed.

But there is more to the story. If you dive deep into the causes of truck accidents, we encounter a complex web of reasons for these injurious and fatal accidents. The FMCSAand the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), conducted a Large Truck Crash Causation Study comprehensively chronicling the determining factors for nearly 1,000 wrongful death and personal injury truck accidents. The Large Truck Crash Causation Study differentiates between driver factors and vehicle factors.

An example of a driver factor is how tired was the truck driver at the time of the crash. This is often referred to as truck driver fatigue. How long had the truck driver slept the last time he or she was able to sleep? How much time had he or she been driving prior to the crash? Digging further into driver factors, the study examined driving history, experience and training. Again common sense tells us and this study confirmed that a driver with a better driving record, performance and more rigorous training is less likely to be involved in a personal injury or wrongful death truck accident.

On the other hand, the vehicle factors’ portion of the study examined the maintenance history and status of the truck. The study put particular emphasis on the brakes, tires and steering. The study also examined the size and weight of the vehicle itself, as well as the weight of freight it was carrying.

In response to the study’s findings, the FMCSA implemented several updates to driver rest requirements and launched a Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) system in 2010. The emphasis on distraction and inattention helped shape FMCSA’s later bans on texting and handheld phone use for truckers. The Large Truck Crash Causation Study had shown that recognition errors caused nearly 30% of large truck crashes.

The FMCSA and Large Truck Crash Causation Study were the result of Congress passing the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 (MCSIA).This law was passed in response to public and political pressure over the glut of personal injury and wrongful death truck crashes in the 1990s. At first glance it appears the law was not successful as the aforementioned statistics of 5,000 fatalities per year and 150,000 personal injuries per year have remained steady.

However, as a country, we now drive 100 billion more semi-truck miles a year in commercial trucking. There is still a lot of work to do, but the fact that wrongful death and truck injury accident statistics have not grown in lockstep with the mileage increase is encouraging.

Self-Driving Truck Accidents: An Uncertain Future

As our AI and driverless technology becomes more sophisticated, there is a future where we no longer have to be concerned about the truck driver’s distractions and fatigue. The future is driverless, autonomous big trucks and tractor-trailers. In this future, we are still concerned about vehicle maintenance issues, and we still worry about whether the computer is always driving the truck safely.

This future opens a new can of worms and need for new comprehensive studies on driverless trucks like the Large Truck Crash Causation Study. We’ve been through 100 years of big trucks on the road to arrive where we are now – where there are still too many personal injury and fatal truck accidents. It’s impossible to predict the kind of learning curve we’ll need with self-driving big rigs.

Florida has a law that allows for driverless vehicles on our roads, including semi-trucks, Florida Statute section 316.85. This law was passed in 2019 presumably to encourage innovation in Florida with this emerging technology. Naturally, one thing that would make us feel better is if there was still a driver in these autonomous trucks, even if AI is doing the driving.

A human presence in the big truck would not only make us feel better if the computer malfunctions but a real person can also do things a computer can’t do yet, like put out safety triangles, cones and flares on the road in the event the truck breaks down.

Last year a bill, SB1580, was presented in the Florida state legislature. This bill would have revised Florida law to require there be a person present in autonomous big trucks over 10,001 pounds as a safety measure in case something went wrong with the AI-driven truck. But this bill to protect Florida drivers from run-away, AI-driven big rigs never became law in Florida. In fact, it never made it out of the Transportation committee and so was never even voted on by the Florida legislature.

There is much work to be done to improve safety and prevent fatal and catastrophic truck accidents while we still live in a world where humans are driving our big rigs. While driverless, autonomous trucks promise a future where other drivers are no longer in danger from a fatigued or distracted truck driver, we must be careful to realize the inherent dangers that are being skimmed over: driverless big trucks are nothing more than computers that can malfunction; and, in the worst case, can be hacked.

About The Author

Frank Santini

Frank Santini, Esq., is a highly accomplished personal injury attorney and the founder of The Frank Santini Law Firm, specializing in personal injury law. A summa cum laude graduate of Stetson University College of Law, Frank is licensed in Florida and New Jersey and has earned recognition as a Rising Star" by Super Lawyers and high ratings from Martindale-Hubbell. Education: Graduated summa cum laude from Stetson University College of Law. Professional Associations: Member of The Florida Bar and the New Jersey Bar. Experience: Founder of The Frank Santini Law Firm, representing personal injury clients with dedication and expertise.

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