2A — THE OBSERVER
D aily
P lanner
MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2019
LOCAL
Truck crashes slightly declining across Oregon
By Sam Stites
TODAY
Oregon Capital Bureau
Today is Monday, Dec. 30,
the 364th day of 2019. There is
one day left in the year.
SALEM — Gagandeep
Singh was traveling south
on Interstate 5 near Wood-
burn when smoke started
boiling up from under his
Volvo tractor-trailer and fill-
ing his driver’s cabin.
He pulled to the shoulder
and was out investigat-
ing when a Freightliner
tractor-trailer driven by Rex
Hollopeter, 51, of Salem,
sideswiped Singh’s.
Hollopeter’s truck came to
a stop blocking southbound
traffic as both trucks burned
furiously.
The wreck, which hospi-
talized Hollopeter, closed the
freeway for hours.
Then, another truck ac-
cident in the northbound
lanes snarled traffic even
more.
The high-profile crashes
in October raised fresh ques-
tions about the safety record
of an ever-increasing num-
ber of commercial trucks
rolling down Oregon’s high-
ways. Yet state data shows
that despite the increasing
miles put on by truckers,
their accidents rates have
held steady and even dipped
in recent years.
In 2008, Oregon saw
2,113 truck crashes on its
roads, according to state
Transportation Department
data. In 2018 — the most
recent year for which data is
available — there were just
1,408 crashes. That number
is surprising given that the
number of miles traveled by
trucks throughout the state
grew by 181 million miles
over the decade.
Between 2015 and 2018,
ODOT data shows there
were 5,934 truck crashes.
That’s an average of four
crashes a day. The highest
annual total during that
period, 1,608 crashes, came
in 2017 when a January
blizzard buried and closed
roads across the state. Truck
drivers were at fault in 50%
of crashes while mechanical
issues with the truck were
at fault in just 2% of cases,
state data shows.
That means 2,849 crashes
were caused by outside fac-
tors such as other drivers or
brutal weather conditions.
ODOT uses police reports
to establish where to place
fault. Police put the blame
on drivers for a number of
reasons, but at the top of the
list are speeding, failing to
remain in their own lane,
following too closely, improp-
erly changing lanes and
failing to pay attention.
ODOT won’t release
numbers for 2019 until all
investigations are finalized
to determine fault, but the
agency does report its year-
to-date numbers to the Fed-
eral Motor Carrier Safety
Administration halfway
through the year.
According to federal
data, there were 858 truck
crashes in Oregon as of June
30, with 23 fatalities and
289 injuries. The early num-
bers are on track to meet
or slightly exceed Oregon’s
average over the previous
five years.
The Federal Motor Car-
rier Safety Administration
also rates Oregon for its
response to crashes and
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Dec. 30, 1922, Vladimir
Lenin proclaimed the estab-
lishment of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, which
lasted nearly seven decades
before dissolving in December
1991.
ON THIS DATE
In 1813, British troops
burned Buffalo, New York, dur-
ing the War of 1812.
In 1853, the United States
and Mexico signed a treaty
under which the U.S. agreed to
buy some 45,000 square miles
of land from Mexico for $10
million in a deal known as the
Gadsden Purchase.
In 1860, 10 days after South
Carolina seceded from the
Union, the state militia seized
the United States Arsenal in
Charleston.
In 1903, about 600 people
died when fire broke out at
the recently opened Iroquois
Theater in Chicago.
In 1936, the United Auto
Workers union staged its
first “sit-down” strike at the
General Motors Fisher Body
Plant No. 1 in Flint, Michigan.
(The strike lasted until Feb. 11,
1937.)
In 1940, California’s first
freeway, the Arroyo Seco Park-
way connecting Los Angeles
and Pasadena, was officially
opened by Gov. Culbert L.
Olson.
In 1942, a near-riot of bobby-
soxers greeted the opening of
Frank Sinatra’s singing engage-
ment at the Paramount Theater
in New York’s Times Square.
In 1972, the United States
halted its heavy bombing of
North Vietnam.
In 1979, Broadway com-
poser Richard Rodgers died in
New York at age 77.
In 1989, a Northwest Airlines
DC-10, which had been the
target of a telephoned threat,
flew safely from Paris to De-
troit with 22 passengers amid
extra-tight security.
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ROAD REPORT
Numberstocall:
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•OutsideOregon:503-588-2941.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
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you.”
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Photo by Sam Stites/Oregon Capital Bureau
Tom Avila inspects a tire that the tire anomaly detection system revealed to have a problem. The pilot program at
the Woodburn port of entry implemented helps prevent accidents by notifying drivers when there’s an issue with
a tire or axle, something that’s not always obvious when they’re on the road.
inspection of trucks. The
agency gave the state a
“good” rating on its last
assessment, with a score
of 90% or better in all 10
criteria including inspection
timeliness, accuracy and
completeness.
“I think that rating
reflects the importance that
safety has in Oregon. It’s our
No. 1 priority across all of
ODOT,” said David House,
spokesman for ODOT’s Mo-
tor Carrier Division.
According to House,
Oregon’s rating isn’t about
comparing itself to other
states, rather looking at
where it can do better in
efforts to educate, train and
inspect motor carriers across
the state.
While truck miles trav-
eled continue to climb,
increasing by 10% between
2008 and 2018, Oregon’s
truck crash rate is declin-
ing, the state data showed.
From 2005 to 2008, Oregon
averaged 1.13 crashes per
million vehicle miles trav-
eled. Between 2015 and
2018, the state’s average
dropped to 0.80. Oregon’s
crash rate reached its lowest
in a decade at 0.73 in 2018
with more than 1.93 billion
miles traveled by trucks in
the state.
All truck at-fault crashes
reached a seven-year low
in 2018 of just 0.36 crashes
per million vehicle miles
traveled.
“It’s encouraging that the
(crash) rate isn’t going up in
proportion to vehicle miles
traveled. That doesn’t mean
we can’t make it better and
improve things through
enforcement, education,
engineering of roadways
and emergency response,”
House said.
In 2016, ODOT adopted
a new transportation safety
plan that envisions zero
deaths on Oregon’s roads
by 2035. The Motor Car-
rier Division is responsible
for three of the four areas
crucial to ODOT’s vision:
education, enforcement and
emergency response.
Those functions are
administered from 173
inspection and weigh sta-
tions located throughout
Oregon, but only a handful
are open full-time. Those
include the ports of entry
in Ashland, Woodburn,
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The trucking industry
is mostly regulated by the
federal government, but
licensing and registration
is handled by states. That
means education plays a
huge role in the state’s ef-
forts to continually improve
safety.
In that effort, ODOT has
a partner in the Oregon
Trucking Associations,
the trade organization of
close to 600 members that
advocates for Oregon’s truck
companies and drivers. The
organization also provides
training and information on
new rules and regulations
related to safety.
Jana Jarvis, trucking
association president, said
that clamping down on
distracted driving is a top
priority.
“We work closely with the
Motor Carrier Division and
try to give them feedback on
what see works and doesn’t
work,” said Jarvis. “Safety
is the No. 1 priority for our
organization.”
Jarvis and Waylon
Buchan, the association’s
director of government af-
fairs, lobby at the state and
federal level. In recent years,
the biggest change they’ve
seen to improve safety was
a federal mandate to use
electronic logbooks to bet-
ter track driver hours and
enforce breaks. Before the
2017 mandate, drivers did
their logbooks by hand, al-
lowing some drivers to fudge
their numbers to continue
driving and earning.
Jarvis said the trucking
association supported the
change.
“We’re always going to
have safety as part of the
calculation whether sup-
porting or not supporting
something because ulti-
mately we want our drivers
and passengers on the road
to get home safely,” Jarvis
said.
Enforcement of regula-
tions is also an important
part of ODOT’s safety
equation, but the agency’s
attitude toward enforcement
has shifted in recent years
from punishing truckers
and trucking companies to
educating them.
In 2018, the Motor Car-
rier Division completed
18,549 inspections and
issued more than 3,500
warnings and citations.
That’s down from the 22,573
inspections Motor Carrier
completed in 2016.
By mid-November, the
agency had issued more
than 2,900 warnings and
citations from 16,516 inspec-
tions. Drivers can be cited
for improper maintenance
of critical systems includ-
ing brakes or how loads
are secured, weight viola-
tions, failure to maintain
a medical exam certificate,
outdated registration and
not carrying chains when
required. Most of those cita-
tions require the driver to
fix the issue within a certain
amount of time, others carry
monetary penalties.
According to data, one
in five citations is serious
enough that inspectors
place a truck out of service
until fixes can be made on
the spot or the truck towed.
That’s on par with national
statistics.
“If safety is your prior-
ity, then enforcement isn’t
about punishment, it’s about
education,” House said. “We
don’t want to punish you or
put you out of business. We
want you to do it right.”
Jeff Brown, Motor Carrier
Division safety manager,
agreed. Instead of bringing a
heavy-handed approach, he
instructs his 105 inspectors
statewide to encourage driv-
ers to ask questions.
For Brown, preventing ac-
cidents and massive traffic
disruption caused by crash-
es like the fiery Woodburn
incident begins with those
contacts between inspectors
and drivers, where ODOT
can be an ally rather than
antagonist.
“I would love to be a
resource for every driver
out there to try to help. I
think it’s critical that we do
that,” Brown said. “We have
to enforce regulations, and
sometimes that’s unfortu-
nate, but at the same time,
the more informed everyone
is out there, the better off
we are.”
Editor’s note: This is part
one of a two-part story. The
second part will run in
Wednesday’s Observer.
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