February 4, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Truckdriver highway fatalities most common in summer
In 1998, 722
truckdrivers lost their lives to highway fatalities. Summer was the
season with the highest number of truckdriver highway fatalities.
[Chart data—TXT]
Because of the high volume of traffic during the summer months, driving
during this time can be particularly hazardous. As a result, trucker
highway fatalities during the summer months are somewhat greater than
during other parts of the year. This was true in 1998 for the U.S. as a
whole and for three of the four regions: Western, Southern, and
Northeastern. In the Midwestern region, fatalities were highest in the
spring.
Because of snow, sleet, and ice, winter driving can be especially
challenging. However, truckdriver highway fatalities during the winter
months in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions were the lowest of all
the seasons.
Data on workplace fatalities are from the BLS Safety
and Health Statistics Program. To learn more about truckdriver
fatalities, see "The Unforgiving Road: Trucker Fatalities" (PDF
65K), by
Peggy Suarez, Compensation and Working Conditions, Winter 1999.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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