The root cause of a carrier’s most frequent and most severe crashes is a place to start when prioritizing unsafe behaviors for coaching. For example, failure to use a seatbelt and cell phone use/distracted driving tops many carriers’ list for coaching. If rear-end crashes are an issue, following too close and hard-braking events would be a top priority to coach and eliminate.
American Trucking Research Institute’s (ATRI) Predicting Truck Crash Involvement study updated in 2022 correlates moving violations or convictions with the probability of having a DOT accident. The top five behaviors with the highest probability of a future crash are:
- Failure to yield (141% increased likelihood of a future crash)
- Failure to use/improper use of turn signal (116% increased likelihood of a future crash)
- Reckless driving (104% increased likelihood of a future crash)
- Failure to obey traffic sign or signal (85% increased likelihood of a future crash)
- Improper lane change or position in their lane (78% increase likelihood of a future crash)
Also noteworthy, Aaccording to the American Trucking Research Institute (ATRI), the top three riskiest driving behaviors you can capture on dash cam video and address with training and coaching are cellphone use, asleep at the wheel, and reckless driving. These behaviors resulted in average litigation-related payments of $629,375, $543,343, and $493,673, respectively.
The Impact of Small Verdicts and Settlements on the Trucking Industry. American Trucking Research Institute. November, 2021
