Tennessee Truck Accident Prevention: Safe Truck Design and 49 C.F.R. § 393
Have you ever wondered why all 18-wheelers tend to look the same? A federal law, 49 CFR § 393, is the answer to that question. Titled “Parts and accessories necessary for safe operation,” it is an expansive federal regulatory scheme aimed at creating standard requirements for large over-the-road vehicles. Administered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, its ultimate goal is to provide uniform production standards to manufacturers so that they may create what the government considers to be safe trucks.
This law covers almost everything imaginable regarding trucks, beginning with lighting systems and ending with steering wheel systems. In between is a vast array of federal rules regulating things like fuel systems, windshield wipers, horns, and tires. Many of the rules are quite specific, such as the rules requiring exact spacing of lights on trucks and trailers. Other rules, such as those requiring that no bolts be missing from any parts of the vehicle, are much more common sense. There are even federal regulations regarding the size of the sleeping berths in the cabs of trucks.
49 CFR § 393 was passed in response to the large number of Tennessee truck accidents and fatalities that were occurring as a result of insufficient safety features on tractor-trailer trucks. Congress, recognizing the high number of truck crashes in Tennessee, and across the nation, involving 18-wheelers in proportion to their prevalence on the road, enacted this scheme in an effort to promote highway safety. The result of the scheme is a highly regulated standard that seeks to ensure that trucks that are produced and operated are being done so in the safest manner possible. Another likely result, however, is that noncompliance with a prescribed standard could create a prima facie case of negligence on the part of owners, operators, and manufacturers.
