Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Study: 80 Percent Car-Truck Deaths Car to Blame

Aired July 24, 2002 - 13:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: You know the rules of the road when it comes to driving around in big rigs. A new study says many motorists don't know, and results are deadly. AAA found 5,000 people die every year in car-truck crashes. How do you avoid becoming one of those statistics?

CNN's Kathleen Koch now joins us from Washington with more on that -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, unfortunately, I think that we have all that very nerve-wracking experience when an 18- wheeler is right on your bumper bearing down on you on the highway. And you know that you don't have a chance against 80,000 pounds of speeding metal.

But what AAA took a look at was not aggressive driving like that -- not fender benders -- but the very worst accidents, the fatal crashes. And surprisingly, AAA found that car drivers, more often than truckers, are the ones pushing the limits.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (voice-over): They are devastating, dramatic crashes, closing down roadways and claiming lives. A AAA study of fatal car- truck crashes found that 98 percent of those killed were in the automobile, not in the truck. Eighty percent of the time the driver of the car was driving dangerously.

PETER KISSINGER, AAA: What this study confirms is that it appears that car drivers are driving around trucks the same way they are around cars, which can be unsafe.

KOCH: The biggest mistakes? Failure to keep in the lane or running off the road. Failure to yield the right-of-way. Driving too fast for conditions or above the speed limit. Failure to obey signs and signals. And driver inattention.

SCOTT MITCHELL, INTERSTATE WORLDWIDE RELOCATION: This motorist here has waited until the last moment to get over. he come right in. Obvious -- you saw him: no turn signal on.

Scott Mitchell, truck driver and fleet manager for a moving company, has seen it all. MITCHELL: Cars continue to do what they want, and not what they should do. They don't realize how long it takes us to react and move 65, 70 feet of a piece of equipment over or stop it within a minimal amount of time without hitting that person or causing mass destruction.

KOCH (on camera): Another problem: riding in an 18-wheeler's blind spot. For a full 12 feet, cars in this position in an adjacent lane can't be seen by the truck right next to them.

(voice-over): AAA, though, says truck drivers aren't blameless. It found they drove unsafely in 27 percent of fatal car-truck accidents.

Tips: slow down, and give big rigs plenty of room -- and not just on the highway.

BILL WEN, AAA: Oftentimes they get caught between the curb and the truck turning. So I think the biggest factor there is just wait a few moments, see what the truck does before you make a decision to change lanes or to go past it.

KOCH: Truckers have advice too.

MITCHELL: They've just got to look more towards where they are going and what they are doing and at least use their signals.

KOCH: Life-saving rules of the road for vehicles large and small.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

One caveat about this study: The reporting on who was driving dangerously came from survivors, witnesses, and police officers' observances of the accident scene. And since 98 percent of those who die in car-truck crashes are in the cars, often those drivers aren't alive to tell their side of the story -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Kathleen Koch, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com