WASHINGTON — Federal regulators plan to survey truck drivers on their seat belt habits after recent fatality data revealed a high number of unrestrained drivers involved in fatal accidents.
In a notice published Wednesday, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it intends to use “quantitative data collection techniques” in an anonymous, self-administered online survey to understand truckers’ behaviors regarding seat belt use and road safety.
“Existing data on the usage of safety belts and perceptions related to road safety do not capture the diversity of different types of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers in a post-coronavirus disease 2019 national emergency landscape,” the agency stated.
“Understanding safety belt usage and perceptions of road safety among CMV drivers will assist FMCSA in gauging emerging trends among this cohort and will inform future messaging and communication efforts targeting CMV drivers.”
Those trends have raised concern among federal transportation officials the past several years.
Speaking at a meeting organized by the Intermodal Association of North America in 2021, Jack Van Steenburg, who was then FMCSA’s chief safety officer, cited statistics showing that of nearly 900 occupants of large trucks killed in crashes in 2019, almost half were not wearing seat belts.
“I just cannot believe people are not wearing seat belts behind [the wheel] of trucks,” Van Steenburg said at the time.
U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg has also raised alarms.
“One thing we’re seeing in trucking … is that seat belt usage is going down,” Trottenberg noted at a DOT safety forum last year. “And when we look at the fatality numbers, they are extraordinarily disproportionately people who are unbelted.”
In 2021, 64% of truck drivers killed in crashes of large trucks were not wearing a seat belt, according to data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That compares with 59% in 2019 and 44% in 2020.
FMCSA estimates 1,060 people will participate in a voluntary survey of truck drivers living in the U.S. with internet access. The survey will be conducted over three to four weeks and should take about 10 minutes.
“The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies,” according to FMCSA. “The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public, and the information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions. Personally identifiable information is not being collected.”
The agency is inviting public comments on the plan before getting approval from the Office of Management and Budget, including whether the proposed data collection is necessary and ways to enhance the quality and usefulness of the information.