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By Dean Croke, Principal Analyst,
DAT Freight & Analytics
For most people, the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day is known simply as “summer.” But for anyone working in trucking or other fields related to driver safety, these are “The 100 Deadliest Days” on America’s highways, when the risk of a fatal crash is higher than at any other time of year.
Summer driving is stressful for truckers, whose lives and livelihoods are tied to the driving practices of those around them.
As you might expect, the number of vehicle miles traveled in the United States spikes between May and September each year, and with it, the number of fatalities. Of the nearly 43,000 people killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year, about 30% died during June, July, and August.
If you manage truck drivers, or you’re a freight broker or shipper responsible for their schedules, you can help manage the risk. Here are three things to know about driving during The 100 Deadliest Days.
Dangerous holidays
Independence Day is the deadliest holiday for drivers, followed by New Year’s Eve. July 4 falls on a Tuesday this year, so most of us will celebrate over a four-day weekend. People are already planning their Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights.
About 40% of driving fatalities during the Independence Day holiday involve alcohol (a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 g/dL or higher). According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, that’s about 10% higher than the annual average.
Law enforcement will set up drunk-driver checkpoints, and safety campaigns will remind people to be safe on the roads.
The fact is, truckers know this is a treacherous holiday for driving. Expect more drivers than usual to park their trucks and avoid the roads during the first week of July.
Teen drivers
School is out, and teens have lots of unstructured and unsupervised time to spend on the road.
According to the AAA Foundation, 30% of all car accidents involving teen drivers occur between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The fatality rate for teen drivers is 17% higher during this period than the rest of the year. Drivers who are 16 or 17 years old are three times more likely to be involved in a deadly crash than adults.
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Speed, alcohol, and distractions are significant factors in these crashes.
Having more teens on the road affects everyone. Nearly two-thirds of people injured or killed in a crash involving a teen driver are people other than the teen behind the wheel.
More daylight, less sleep
Our natural sleep cycle is driven by the rising and setting of the sun. But for long-haul truckers, work hours and rest periods are federally regulated and monitored by an electronic logging device in the vehicle.
Herein lies the challenge of prescriptive hours-of-service regulations that take a one-size-fits-all approach.
A driver’s work and rest schedule can shift during a weeklong duty cycle. The rules may require drivers to start their workday at different times and force them to stop and try to sleep when they’re not tired, or it’s not conducive to sleep. Drivers who take their required 10-hour break during the day average just four-and-a-half hours of sleep—three hours less than drivers who take their 10-hour break in the evening.
Sleep aids aren’t always practical or safe. Blue-light-blocking sunglasses and a darkened sleeper cab before bedtime can help. But it’s hard to trick the brain into producing melatonin and getting a restful sleep during daylight hours.
Shippers, brokers, and dispatchers can help by recognizing and respecting the connection between more daylight hours and less sleep. You’ll make it easier for drivers to manage risk on the highway and reduce the likelihood of service failures when drivers are tied to schedules that don’t account for the traffic congestion, riskier behavior from motorists, more volatile weather, delays, and general stress of moving freight during these 100 Deadliest Days.
Dean Croke is the principal analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics, which operates the transportation industry’s largest marketplace for spot truckload freight and the DAT iQ freight-data analytics service.
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