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Nov 16, 2009 10:00 pm US/Central
CBS 11 Looks At N. Texas Dangerous Driving Zones
NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
It could happen to anyone. You're travelling down the road and a big-rig changes lanes or suddenly stops, causing an accident. Big rig trucks are heavy and hard to stop. So when they crash and burn or a driver loses control, people die.
Cynthia Carter, 33, of Dallas was burned beyond recognition when her car collided with a large truck that ran a red light. Her husband, Amani Carter was left alone to raise three kids. He sued the trucking company and the driver and his family received $5,000,000 in an agreed judgment.
According to the federal government, Texas leads the nation in the number of fatal crashes involving large trucks. In October, CBS 11 News reported on about half a dozen large truck accidents. The accidents happened during the day, in the rain, and at night. So we began to analyze more than 12,000 accident records involving large trucks in the last five years.
We plugged the GPS coordinates of every accident into a sophisticated computer mapping program. It pinpointed the location of Cynthia Carter's accident and more than 100 other fatal accidents. We discovered the following data:
-- The most deadly interstate is I-20 from Benbrook to Balch Springs. 14 people killed.
-- The most deadly highway intersection is I-35E and I-20. 4 people killed.
-- I-30 and Cockrell Hill in Dallas County is the area for the most non-fatal truck accidents.
-- Dallas County had the most fatalities in the last five years, a total of 75.
Cynthia White is a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Transportation. She says part of the problem is "trucks don't have the maneuverability that small cars do." We asked White if her agency has analyzed the statistics like CBS 11 did to show the danger zones like:
-- I-45 from Downtown Dallas to I-20. 5 fatalities in the last 5 years
-- I-30 in Dallas and Tarrant Counties. 12 fatalities
-- I-35W along Highway 114. 13 non-fatal accidents.
White told us, "I don't think right now that in depth analysis has occurred."
As in Cynthia Carters' accident, driver decision making is the number one cause of truck fatalities.
In July 2007, a federal study concluded truck drivers making bad decisions; like driving too fast, tailgating or using bad judgment, accounted for nearly 90-percent of crashes.
Jeff Rasansky is a Dallas lawyer who has represented 100's of victims of truck accidents, including the Carter family.
Rasansky points out that the government doesn't do enough to prevent the accidents. "We have 15 million cars on the roads today with regulations that are not stringent enough to protect our drivers," he said.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) just completed a study which restricted large trucks from driving in the left hand lane. That study showed a significant drop in crashes on North Texas roads.
TxDOT plans to implement the findings on highways all over North Texas, but that will take years.
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