Press Release: The INVEST in America Act Paves a Path to Safer Trucking
The INVEST in America Act Paves a Path to Safer Trucking
Institute for Safer Trucking Supports Bill Containing Multiple Safety Provisions
The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure today released a five-year surface transportation bill, the INVEST Act, that includes several important safety policies to reduce truck crashes in the United States. With truck crash deaths over 5,000 per year and injuries at 159,000 and continuing to rise, these solutions are needed more than ever.
The Institute for Safer Trucking strongly supports the INVEST Act containing several important provisions that will improve truck safety:
Updating the minimum insurance for large trucks from $750,000 to $2,000,000 and indexing to inflation (Sec. 4408);
Improving rear underride guards and a study to learn more about the safety benefits of side underride guards (Sec. 4405);
Requiring automatic emergency braking for truck-tractors and a study to initiate rulemaking on AEB in all large trucks (Sec. 4404);
Restoring the public’s access to compliance, safety, accountability (CSA) data and issuing a safety fitness determination rule will improve accountability throughout the supply chain (Sec. 4202);
Preventing further delays for the entry-level driver training rule (Sec. 4303);
Studying driver detention time (Sec. 4304);
Creating a task force on truck leasing (Sec. 4305);
Initiate a rulemaking for screening for obstructive sleep apnea; (Sec. 4308); and
Authorizing funds for the creation and maintenance of parking for truck drivers (Sec. 1308).
“The Institute for Safer Trucking thanks Chairman DeFazio (D-OR), Chairwoman Holmes Norton (D-DC) and the committee staff for their work on creating a robust safety title in the INVEST Act. Requiring automatic emergency braking, improving underride protections, and updating the minimum insurance requirements for interstate motor carriers are just some of the policies that will save thousands of lives and truly transform the trucking industry for the better,” said John Lannen, a Principal at the Institute for Safer Trucking.
“I am excited the INVEST Act includes language to increase rear underride protections and starts collecting data on the benefits of side guards,” said Laurie Higginbotham of Memphis, TN, an IST Board Member. “I am particularly grateful to U.S Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) for his unyielding commitment to addressing truck underride crashes – the kind of crash that killed my son, Michael.”
“Increasing the minimum insurance is long overdue and an effective way to make trucking safer. Forty years of inaction has led to countless unsafe motor carriers being allowed to endanger the public. It has also led to many truck crash survivors and families of victims being financially punished because the current minimum levels are so low,” said Peter Malarczyk of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, an IST Board Member who, along with his two younger sisters, survived a truck crash that killed their parents Ryszard and Anita. “We are so glad that we have representatives in congress, like U.S. Representative Chuy Garcia (D-IL), who has fought tirelessly for this provision to be included in the INVEST Act.”
“While automatic emergency braking is a technology that has been proven in truck-tractors and should be required in all trucks, we need to know more about its functionality in medium-duty trucks to ensure a future rulemaking is successful,” said Harry Adler, a Principal at the Institute for Safer Trucking. “This bill requires AEB to be implemented in one year for truck-tractors, and then directs the U.S. Department of Transportation to require it for all other trucks depending on the results of a two-year study. This is the smart, data-driven approach to get AEB into all trucks as quickly as possible. We thank Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA) for his leadership on this issue.”
The Institute for Safer Trucking (IST) is a nonprofit organization committed to fostering collaboration between trucking industry stakeholders to provide the public with an understanding of truck safety issues and the data-driven solutions that can address them. We are a reliable resource for families of truck crash victims and survivors in need of help after their truck crash as well as for motor carriers and truck drivers to learn about safety improvements that can reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities.
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