Trucking companies take steps to keep drivers and public safe

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) – Chickens, pigs, and corn syrup–trucks carrying each one ended up flipped over this week.

Three major accidents in less than a week have trucking companies reviewing how to keep their drivers and the public safe.

Chris Makamson is the Director of Safety at Royal Trucking Company in West Point. He says one thing they do is to make sure their drivers are always learning how to be better.

“First thing that we do is continuous education of our drivers we have a training program here, and we also have a continuous education program with their current fleet and what that is we use an online web-based training program, and those drivers can see anywhere any time,” said Makamson.

When something like this does happen, trucking companies try to figure out what happened and why.

“The first thing we look at is speed, and our trucks are capable, with the technology that we have on them, to see exactly how fast driver was going at the time of the accident,” said Makamson. “The other things that we look at is whether or not the driver was distracted. We have a smart drive camera system so we can actually go back and look at the footage of when that truck rolls over and see if the driver was distracted.”

But before they can look at how it happened, they have to make sure everyone is safe.

“It’s a huge task it’s a huge undertaking with a rollover,” said Makamson. “There’s a lot going on. The first thing is to make sure that the driver is okay you know and of course if there’s anybody else involved. We want to make sure the motoring public is safe as well. The next thing we have a lot of things, there’s a lot of carnage whenever there’s a rollover. You have to worry about the tractor, the trailer, and the freight.”

Makamson says that before they let their drivers go out, they give them some words of wisdom.

“We always tell our drivers you know we want you to make sure that load is secure so if your mother or grandmother was driving beside that truck. You would know that it was not gonna come off,” said Makamson.

Makamson says that their company hasn’t seen a rollover in over a year and hopes to keep the streak alive.