11/17/2008Steve LombardiComments (0)Blog Category: Car and Tractor Trailer AccidentsCar and Tractor Trailer AccidentsTruck Accident Prevention: Garbage truck backing over woman may be an accident but itis preventable.Truck backing over pedestrian woman is preventable.Today I’m going to revisit accidents in which a pedestrian is backed over by a truck or other vehicle whilethe driver is attempting to back to the rear. A backing up maneuver.These are tragic accidents. But the tragedy aside we need to learn from them to prevent future accidentsfrom happening. If the rules are followed these types of accident are preventable. Pedestrians don’t standa chance when confronted suddenly with an approaching vehicle. That’s not a statement that shouldn’tcause an epiphany its simply reality.Accidents are about an assessment of fault. Who did what and when did they do it? What should theyhave done differently and why? Answer those questions and you pave the way to what the civil justicesystem is all about. Feelings aside they have nothing to do with assessment of fault. The cold hard factsof life include that vehicles are instruments of death. Put a rushed or distracted person behind the wheeland I’ll show you a driver at fault. Just drive down the road and watch the number of people texting orwith a cell phone glued to their ear looking around wondering who is watching how important they appearwhile talking on the phone.Corporate America is trimmed to the bone. The are squeezing more and more out of less and less. Andthat means fewer workers have to do more work in less time. In the case of the garbage truck backingover the woman it’s pretty predictable and preventable.First it’s predictable because it’s not rocket science to expect workers to be downtown on the sidewalks,walkways and alleys of busy Des Moines. Deliver trucks, garbage trucks and the like know they have tocontend with pedestrian traffic.And backing over pedestrians is preventable. If the driver is intending to back up and can’t see behindthey simply need to rely on a spotter. Most vehicles are required to use a rear-audible-warning devicethat emits a beeping sound as the truck is engaged to back up. If the warning device isn’t working thenthe truck isn’t suppose to be put into use until it’s fixed. It’s that simple. If the driver is unable to see tothe rear then a spotter is used.This type of accident is far too common than one might think. The first example comes about on October27, 2004. In that case we researched this issue involving a situation in Oceola, Clarke County, Iowa. Thevehicle was a shag truck with a disconnected rear-warning-device. The driver couldn’t see and simplybacked up over a fellow security guard worker. Luckily the woman didn’t die. She is today a livingexample of a miracle. In spite of my grouchiness we remain friends.The second example came up as a news item by the Gazetteonline.com from Cedar Rapids and it caughtmy attention on June 7, 2008. In that case a Garnavillo woman working at a sand company was backedover by an end loader. She off course died at the scene. You might wonder how this can happen and howto prevent it from happening to you or your loved one. OSHA has rules that apply to certain industriesthat are designed to reduce the number of fatalities from backing over someone at a work site. There isno indication of what time the shift began or what the worker was doing at the time she was backed over.Workers on work sites are busy with individual duties and can’t have eyes in the back of their head.Spotters can help avoid these mishaps along with auditory rear warning devices.In the third example a 4-year-old child was backed over in Gowrie and it was reported in the Des MoinesRegister on October 7, 2008. In that instance the driver of a Ford pickup truck didn’t see the child as theywere backing out of the driveway, continued and the child was killed.In the latest case a Des Moines woman died of massive head and leg injuries on November 7, 2008 whena garbage truck backed over her while in an alley to the rear of the Aviva USA Insurance Companybuilding. That building is close to the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Park Street, downtown Des Moines.These are all sad cases and our heart goes out to the survivers and the drivers who live with the pain butaccording to experts these accidents are preventable.Rear warning devices have to work, shouldn’t be plugged up or covered or disconnected. They should beappropriately loud and distinct enough for the work zone. If the vehicle was manufactured with a rearwarning device it can not be disconnected without a written consent of the manufacturer. If the rearalarm doesn’t work the vehicle shouldn’t be used until it’s repaired. OSHA has specific rules based on theindustry and the history of past accidents.“This is in response to your May 12 letter requesting compliance determinations for your "Radar BackupAlarm System 202" as it relates to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard29 CFR 1926.601(b)(4)(i). That provision addresses reverse signal alarms for motor vehicles.”From 1990 to Jan. 2003 there were 9 child deaths out of 42 children involved in backing up incidents.Research has proven that rear warning devices work. There is also research that discusses the overuse ofthese devices and competing noises and how those noises interfere with a pedestrian’s perception ofimminent danger. That simply means drivers can not and company’s should not require drivers to relysolely on rear warning devices when rushed and in a hurry to complete a route. One company, The Strattus Group in its Backing Accident Prevention instructions cites numbers ofaccidents and costs associated with this type of accident and they contend “All backing accidents arepreventable!!!!.”“There are over three million rear-end accidents (backing accidents) each year in the USA, over fourbillion dollars spent on repairs and over one thousand lost lives! Studies have shown that 60% ofcollisions in the transportation field involve backing / parking. While these low speed collisions rarelyproduce injuries, they do occur frequently, costing you and your insurance company
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