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Safety advocates have urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to require crash avoidance technology on all new trucks and buses weighing 10 thousand pounds or more GVW (gross vehicle weight). On February 19, 2015 four petitioners: Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Center for Auto Safety, Truck Safety Coalition, and Road Safe America sent a letter to Mark Rosekind, Administrator of the NHTSA. Their letter pointed out that the U.S. has seen "year-after-year increases in the number of fatalities and injuries occurring in collisions involving large trucks. Fatalities have increased by 16 percent since 2009 from 3,380 to 3,921 in 2012 with the number of people injured in the crashes increasing by 40 percent from 74,000 to 104,000. The letter further pointed out that the total tonnage by weight of freight shipments by truck is predicted to increase by as much as 63 percent by 2040."

According to FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System), each year more than 1,600 large trucks are involved in fatal crashes where the front end of the truck is the initial point of contact when the truck strikes other vehicles. This often creates chain reactions.

NBC-2 reported on March 3 that a semi did not stop when vehicles in front of it were stopped. The accident happened on the Peace River Bridge in Charlotte County and involved seven other vehicles. In addition to those injured, two people died. According to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) the large truck was in the outside lane of I-75 when it failed to stop. The driver was cited for careless driving.

Safety advocates pointed out in their petition that "while nearly every truck manufacturer currently offers some type of F-CAM system (Forward Collision Warning System) on new vehicles, there is no national standard for F-CAM system performance and not all buyers purchase this safety option. Only 3 percent of the more than 3 million standard tractor-trailers (Class 8) on the road today are equipped with some form of this technology."

Trucks or buses equipped with F-CAM warns the drivers by a signal that they are getting too close to a "target" in front of them. The Collision Mitigation Braking (CMB) will automatically apply the brakes reducing the impact speed or preventing collisions. The F-CAM system integrates both of these technologies. After a decade of studying the system, the NHTSA recently published a complete evaluation of the installation of the F-Cam system on medium to heavy commercial vehicles. This study showed the benefits of such a system.

The American Trucking Association (ATA) has announced that they plan to review the NHTSA data and look into the reform recommendation. The association points out that it is still waiting for the NHTSA approval on a safety proposal from six years ago that would electronically govern the speed of all big trucks. This would limit their speed to 65 mph.

"If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a truck or bus accident, you should contact an attorney as soon as possible so as not to forfeit your rights under the statute of limitations," says Collier County Truck Accident Attorney, Randall Spivey of Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A.

Collier County Vehicle Accident Attorney, Randall L. Spivey is a Board Certified Trial Attorney – the highest recognition for competence bestowed by the Florida Bar and a distinction earned by just one (1%) percent of Florida attorneys.  He has handled over 2,000 personal injury and wrongful death cases throughout Florida.  For a free and confidential consultation to discuss your legal rights, contact the Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A., in Lee County at 239.337.7483 or toll free at 1.888.477.4839,or by email to Randall@SpiveyLaw.com.  Visit SpiveyLaw.com for more information.  You can contact Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A.in Charlotte County at 941.764.7748 and in Collier County 239.793.7748.