STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
A7
Truck crashes slightly declining across
Oregon as inspectors aim to teach, not punish
While tragic
headlines seem
plentiful, crashes
involving trucks
aren’t happening
at the rate you
might expect
By Sam Stites
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon Capital Bureau/Sam Stites
A tractor trailer approaches the scales at the Woodburn port of entry.
Oregon Capital Bureau/Sam Stites
Weighmaster Tom Avila weighs a Freightliner tractor-trailer as it moves across the scales lo-
cated at the Woodburn port of entry.
Oregon Capital Bureau/Sam Stites
ODOT Motor Carrier Compliance Specialist Don McCloskey,
left, and Central Safety Unit Manager Jess Brown discuss an
issue with a driver’s registration during a routine inspection
at the Woodburn port of entry.
gon’s rating isn’t about com-
paring 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 percent
between 2008 and 2018,
Oregon’s truck crash rate
is declining, the state data
showed. From 2005 to
2008, Oregon averaged 1.13
crashes per million vehi-
cle miles traveled. 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 hand-
ful are open full time. Those
include the ports of entry in
Ashland, Woodburn, Klam-
ath Falls, Cascade Locks
and Huntington.
The trucking industry is
mostly regulated by the fed-
eral government, but licens-
ing and registration is han-
dled by states. That means
education plays a huge role
in the state’s efforts to con-
tinually improve safety.
In that effort, ODOT
has a partner in the Oregon
Trucking Associations, the
trade organization of close
to 600 members that advo-
cates for Oregon’s truck
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Blue Mountain Eagle
MyEagleNews.com
S163726-1
Gagandeep Singh was
traveling south on Inter-
state 5 near Woodburn when
smoke started boiling up
from under his Volvo trac-
tor-trailer and filling his
driver’s cabin.
He pulled to the shoul-
der and was out investigat-
ing when a Freightliner trac-
tor-trailer driven by Rex
Hollopeter, 51, of Salem,
sideswiped Singh’s.
Hollopeter’s truck came
to a stop blocking south-
bound traffic as both trucks
burned furiously.
The wreck, which hos-
pitalized Hollopeter, closed
the freeway for hours.
Then, another truck acci-
dent 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
highways.
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 high-
est annual total during that
period, 1,608 crashes, came
in 2017 when a January bliz-
zard 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, fail-
ing to remain in their own
lane, following too closely,
improperly 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 Administra-
tion also rates Oregon for
its response to crashes and
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 cri-
teria including inspection
timeliness, accuracy and
completeness. “I think that
rating reflects the impor-
tance that safety has in Ore-
gon. It’s our number one pri-
ority across all of ODOT,”
said David House, spokes-
man for ODOT’s Motor
Carrier Division.
According to House, Ore-
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710
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 dis-
tracted driving is currently 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 number one priority for
our organization.”
Jarvis
and
Waylon
Buchan, the association’s
director of government
affairs, lobby at the state and
federal level.
In recent years, the big-
gest change they’ve seen to
improve safety was a federal
mandate to use electronic
log books to better track
driver hours and enforce
breaks. Before the 2017
mandate, drivers did their
logbooks by hand, allowing
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 support-
ing or not supporting some-
thing because ultimately we
want our drivers and passen-
gers on the road to get home
safely,” Jarvis said.
Enforcement of regula-
tions is also an important
part of ODOT’s safety equa-
tion, but the agency’s atti-
tude toward enforcement
has shifted in recent years
from punishing truckers and
trucking companies to edu-
cating them.
In 2018, the Motor Carrier
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 cita-
tions from 16,516 inspec-
tions. Drivers can be cited
for improper maintenance
of critical systems includ-
ing brakes or how loads are
secured, weight violations,
failure to maintain a medical
exam certificate, outdated
registration and not carrying
chains when required. Most
of those citations require the
driver to fix the issue within
a certain amount of time,
while others carry monetary
penalties.
According to data, one
in five citations is seri-
ous 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 busi-
ness. We want you to do it
right.”
Jeff Brown, Motor Car-
rier Division safety man-
ager, agreed. Instead of
bringing a heavy-handed
approach, he instructs his
105 inspectors statewide
to encourage drivers to ask
questions.
For Brown, preventing
accidents and massive traffic
disruption caused by crashes
like the fiery Woodburn inci-
dent begins with those con-
tacts 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.”
Grant County Art Association Monthly Meeting: Wednesday, January 8, from 9:00 AM -
12:00 PM. Hosted at Painted Sky Center for the Arts this month, January’s meeting will discuss group
or art-related topics, and group will draw or paint afterward.
Basic Drawing Class: Begins Tuesday, January 14, from 5:30 - 7:30 PM. The popular basic drawing
class by Robert Rex is back! Learn to draw basic shapes, apply shading, and much more in this 12-
week course.
Auditions for “Steel Magnolias” by Robert Harding: Wednesday, January 15 from 9:00 AM -
1:00 PM, and Saturday, January 18 from 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM. Roles for age 19 - 60ish females available.
Intermediate Drawing Class: Begins Thursday, January 16, from 5:30 - 7:30 PM. Intermediate
students will pursue new subject matter such as composition, design elements, perspective, and
figure proportions in this 12-week course.
Valentine’s Day Gnomes and Chalk Chip: Thursday, January 17, from 5:30 - 7:30 PM. Join us
for a chalk couture workshop where we will be making cute gnomes to give to your special someone
or decorate for Valentine’s Day.
Music Lessons: See paintedskycenter.com/music-lessons for more info or to register. Music lesson
punch cards available to purchase.
Arts After School & Friday Art Club: Ongoing; see more at
S164482-1
Paintedskycenter.com/Kids-Art. If you are interested, please join the
waiting list. With enough interest we will start additional classes.
For more info or to register visit paintedskycenter.com or email
paintedskycenter@gmail.com.