Reflective Tape Prevents Michigan Truck Accidents

The U.S. Department of Transportation 's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration now requires all commercial trucks manufactured after November 1993 to be equipped with highly reflective tape or its equivalent in the form of reflectors, so they are more visible. Yet drive down any Michigan highway and it 's shocking to see just how many trucks still do not have reflective tape.    

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study found that the required reflective tape is highly effective in preventing crashes. The 2001 study estimated that once all heavy tractor-trailers in the nation 's fleet have been equipped with highly reflective tape, 7,800 truck crashes each year will be prevented. The study also estimated that 191 to 350 fatalities per year -- people killed driving into trucks without reflective tape in poor or low visibility conditions -- will be prevented, as well as 3,100 to 5,000 people who suffer personal injury from these type accidents. According to the 55-page study, reflective tape greatly reduces side and rear crashes into heavy trailers.    

Regardless, many truck drivers and trucking companies throughout the country and in Michigan neglect to adhere highly reflective tape to their semi-trucks. Since the absence of reflective tape on trucks has been proven to cause catastrophic truck accidents, there is very little excuse for why truck fleets haven 't added inexpensive reflective tape to older trucks that are still in service. Also, if a truck driver is caught driving a newer model truck without reflective tape, he or she can be cited with a safety violation and the truck can be taken out of service (shut down).

The lawyers of Michigan Auto Law have handled many tragic truck accident cases in which drivers have been killed barreling into trucks in dark, unlit, rural areas without mandated reflective tape to make them visible in the dark.

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