How Technology and Safety Programs Help Trucking Companies Fight Distracted Driving

Distracted driving kills. In 2018, nearly 3,000 people were killed by distracted driving in the U.S. Distracted driving is any activity that diverts attention from driving. This can include talking on your phone, texting, changing the radio station, using a GPS system, eating, and drinking.

Really, distracted driving is anything that takes your focus away from the road.

How dangerous is texting while driving, really?

Texting while driving is a dangerous distraction on the road — especially for a truck driver. Sending or reading just one short text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At highway speeds, that 5 seconds can equal more than 100 yards with your eyes completely off the road.

State legislatures across the country understand the dangers of text messaging behind the wheel. As of this post, 48 of 50 states have banned text messaging for all drivers.[1]

These texting bans that have been on the book for years have not curtailed this dangerous driving behavior. Whenever I drive down North Avenue in Chicago, it seems like every other driver that passes me has their head down looking at their phone.

Distracted driving is deadlier when it comes to truck driving

Take that same dangerous distracted driving behavior, and put that driver in an 80,000-pound rig. Immediately, those risks become amplified. We have seen the devastating effects of a distracted truck driver.

Several years ago, attorneys Joe Shannon, Jack Cannon, and Pat Anderson handled a Will County case in which a distracted truck driver did not notice traffic backing up ahead of her on I-55. The devastating crash left two victims dead and another with catastrophic permanent injuries.

How Technology Prevents Distracted Truck Driving

Fortunately, technological developments over the years have identified distracted driving amongst truck drivers, so that these behaviors can be corrected with coaching.

For example, Lytx safety monitoring technology features forward and rear-facing in-cab video cameras. The rear-facing camera is pointed at the driver.

The technology can identify when a driver takes his eyes off the road and will provide an audible in-cabin warning to recapture the driver’s attention. The system will also record a distracted driving event. When a trucking company identifies a driver having too many distracted driving events, they can proactively intervene and coach that driver.

In trucking, the best safety program is one that aims to prevent crashes before they occur. By stopping dangerous driving behaviors before they have catastrophic effects, trucking companies can improve highway safety and improve their bottom line.

Unfortunately, many of the trucking crash victims we represent suffer devastating injuries because of a distracted truck driver.

In one recent case, the onboard video of the crash revealed that the truck driver was talking on his phone, listening to his radio, communicating with other drivers on his CB radio, and trying to follow a GPS navigation system–all at the same time.

In another recent case, the driver had made a wrong turn and did not know how to get back to her destination. It’s likely that she was using her GPS system when she t-boned our client as the truck driver made a left-hand turn.

As highway safety advocates, we hope more trucking companies employ these pro-active safety measures to reduce distracted driving by drivers of these dangerous commercial vehicles.

[1] Missouri bans texting by drivers under 21 years of age. Montana has no texting ban.