Are today's trucks safe?

Yes. Professional truck drivers and the units they operate, are -- as a group -- the safest drivers and vehicles on our roads and highways. Ontario Ministry of Transportation statistics show that tractor/semi-trailer units represent only about 1.4% of all the vehicles involved in Ontario traffic accidents. In total, these units are involved in less than 21/2% of all accidents on Ontario roadways.

Tractor-trailers represented about 80 of the 1,616 vehicles involved in the fatal crashes that occurred that year; 1.1 per cent of the vehicles involved in personal injury collisions; and 1.4 per cent of the vehicles involved in total property damage collisions.

An analysis of fatal crashes involving tractor-trailer units indicates that in the vast majority of these, the truck driver was driving properly 70% of the time.

The relative collision rate of tractor-trailers (1.1 crashes per million km travelled) is about three times less than the rate for all vehicles combined (3.2 crashes per million km travelled).

Not one fatal crash involving a tractor-trailer unit in 1992* (the most recent year for which statistics are available) could be attributed to a vehicle defect.

Improved safety is not only good business, it is the responsibility the trucking industry accepts for sharing its workplace with the public.

*All statistics referred to in this document are from the Ontario Road Safety Annual Report, Ministry of Transportation. 1992 is the most recent year for which statistics are available