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Feb 20, 2016

THE YOUNGEST FEMALE MONSTER-TRUCK DRIVER * USA

* Georgia - Keeping up with the eightteen y(o trucker 
-- Rosalee Ramer became a professional monster-truck driver shortly after her fourteenth birthday. She spent the majority of her high-school career competing in regional monster-truck events with her father, Kelvin Ramer, who has been building and driving monster trucks for more than a decade. And then there was her truck: a 1932 Ford pickup atop a custom chassis stuffed with a five-hundred-and-seventy-two-cubic-inch, eight-cylinder, custom-molded, super-charged engine that runs on methanol, throttling its energy through a power-glide transmission and into hot-pink wheels wrapped in sixty-six-inch tires. Her license plate, tacked onto the rear of the truck’s frame, reads, “Princess” ... On a Thursday afternoon in late January, Rosalee hustled across the Georgia Institute of Technology campus, where she is a freshman studying mechanical engineering. She had to finish packing and get to the airport. She needed to bring her reading assignment for English class, her multivariable-calculus homework, and the first two chapters from her mechanical-physics textbook. Plus her laptop. Last summer, after she turned eighteen, Ramer signed on with Monster Jam, the largest national circuit for monster-truck racing. At the airport, she called her father, who had just arrived in Phoenix, for that weekend’s monster-truck show, where they would both be competing... After the competition, Ramer’s father took the motorhome back to California, monster trucks in tow. She took a cab to the airport to head back to Georgia. Although she loves her life as a monster-truck driver, Ramer hopes to use her affinity for mechanics to get into consumer automobiles, while keeping monster trucks as a pastime. She spent the plane ride back to school studying for her physics test, slated for the following morning. A few days later, the test results were released. She got an A...
(Photo, by KAREN MCCROREY: Rosalee Ramer became a professional monster-truck driver shortly after her fourteenth birthday. Nearly five years later, she is going up against—and beating—competitors twice her age) -- Atlanta, GA, USA - The New Yorker, by IAN FRISCH - Feb 17, 2016

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Aug 29, 2015

INEXPERIENCED DRIVERS * USA: A risky business for truck fleets

* Wiscosin - Drivers with less CDL experience, could result in punitive damages against the trucking company
-- Many truck fleets today are motivated to put a driver in a seat to get the truck moving. This is something clients often ask us about, and may become more prevalent if federal law is changed to allow under-21 CDL holders to operate trucks on an Interstate basis... With the shortage of drivers, many companies are okay with (or becoming okay with) hiring drivers with little to no experience... This seems to make sense, but trucking companies hiring inexperienced drivers may be opening themselves up to more risk than it’s worth. When hiring someone this green, it is critical to consider the cost of hiring, training, and retaining this driver along with the possible negligent hiring suits you could be opening the door to should the driver be involved in a serious accident... Plaintiff’s attorneys know as much (if not sometimes more) than the average trucking company about proper hiring for drivers... In cases where a plaintiff attorney can prove to a jury that the trucking company didn’t hire drivers of acceptable competency, or that the federally mandated paperwork is incomplete, a suit for negligent hiring may result... In some cases, this results in punitive damages, which may or may not be covered by an insurance company. In some states, insurance companies are prohibited from paying punitive damages... This means that the trucking company is responsible for theses damages. Proceed with caution — the hiring of drivers who are unqualified due to inexperience, tickets, or accidents could jeopardize the future of your trucking company... 
Milwaukee, WIS, USA - Trucking News on Line, by Denise Banks - August 16, 2015

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Jul 14, 2015

Teen truckers? * USA: Bill would lower interstate truck driver age to 18

* DC - Young as 18 to get behind the wheel of big rigs on the nation's interstates ?

-- Parents may hesitate to hand teens the keys to the family car, but Congress is proposing to allow drivers as young as 18 to get behind the wheel of big rigs on the nation's interstates... Federal regulations currently require drivers be at least 21 before they can drive commercial trucks across state lines, but a bill introduced this week by Republican senators would allow contiguous states that join together in "compacts" to drop the age threshold to 18 for interstate trips. There is no limit on the number of states that could join the compacts... After four years, the Transportation secretary is supposed to report to Congress on whether teens have "an equivalent level of safety" in comparison with older truckers... In 2013, all drivers ages 18-20 had a fatal crash involvement rate, per 100,000 licensed drivers, that was 66 percent higher than drivers who were age 21 years or older, according to the Transportation Department's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, although the total number of crash deaths among teens has been declining since 2002... The change was sought by the American Trucking Associations to help address a shortage of truck drivers... 
 (Photo: A young trucker on work)  --  Washington, DC, USA - Associated Press/US News, by JOAN LOWY - July 10, 2015

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Dec 8, 2012

DANGEROUS DRIVERS * USA

* New York - Study: How Will Aging Baby Boomers Affect Crash Rates?

New York,NY,USA -The New York Times, by CHERYL JENSEN -December 3, 2012: -- While the number of older drivers is growing, it is not likely that these graying baby boomers will cause greater carnage on America’s roads, according to a new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute, which is affiliated with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Both are financed by the insurance industry... Concerned about the impact of changing demographics on claims rates, the institute wanted to see what the nation’s crash trends would look like in 2030. To do that, researchers looked at collision insurance claims rates from the 2010 calendar year by age group. They combined that information with predicted demographic changes in the insured driver population, then estimated what the overall claim frequency would be some 20 years in the future... The study concluded that the frequency of collision claims over all will remain essentially flat... It isn’t that older drivers — who do have higher collision claim rates than drivers in their 50s and 60s — become better drivers as they age... It has more to do with the fact that the number of youngest drivers — those in their teens — is expected to decrease, and they are the worst drivers... The frequency of collision claims in the institute’s database is highest for drivers ages 15-19, at nearly 70 percent above average. That frequency declines steadily with age and is at its lowest for drivers 60-64. Although it starts to rise again, it never gets as high as it does for teenagers...

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Jan 14, 2010

YOUNG DRIVERS * UK - Post-test driving for work qualification

The overwhelming majority of safest fleets want the Government to introduce a nationally-recognised post-test driving for work qualification for young drivers

London,UK -HGV UK -January 13, 2010: ... Road crashes are the single biggest killer of young people in the UK with almost 1,200 killed or seriously injured on the roads every year. Young drivers, especially those under 20, are nearly 12 times more likely than those aged 35-65 to have caused a fatal crash than to have been innocently involved in one... Meanwhile, with an estimated up to 200 road deaths and serious injuries a week resulting from crashes involving at work drivers, more employees are killed and seriously injured on Britain’s roads while driving on behalf of their employer than in any other work-related activity... Therefore, inexperienced, recently qualified 17-24-year-olds who are driving on business are likely to be at the very highest risk of being involved in a crash... As a result, the Government is anxious to promote a wide range of measures to help young drivers stay safe when they are on the road... While the majority (76%) of ‘business champion’ fleets allow young employees to drive on business – 24% don’t – many impose restraints on them as part of their safe driving procedures. Those measures include:

* 48% of ‘business champion’ fleets restrict the size of vehicle young employees are allowed to drive
* 33% restrict the performance of the vehicle
* 19% ban youngsters from taking to the road in adverse weather conditions
* 14% ban them driving at night.

(Picture from comparecom.co.uk)

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