According to statistics from the Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD), in the first months of this year, there have been 14 accidents involving a truck where someone has been gravely injured or died. Meanwhile, last year, there were 20 such accidents all year.
The accident on June 28 on the Ventspils highway is the worst that the miller company Dobeles Dzirnavnieks has experienced in its history. A company car was involved in an accident in which two cars collided in the same lane. The driver of the third car was killed when he drove head-on into a trailer that had been pushed onto the road.
This is a rare accident involving three trucks, explained Oskars Irbītis, head of the Road Safety Directorate's (CSDD) Serious Road Accident Investigation Pilot Project. The aim of the pilot project is to analyse all serious road accidents. He was also at the accident scene on Friday.
"One lorry crashed into another. Either there was a distraction or it was a medical problem," Irbītis said.
Dobeles Dzirnavnieks explained that it had not yet been possible to speak to the driver involved in the accident. He is being treated in hospital for serious injuries. He was very experienced.
"Our driver, who is very experienced, with more than 40 years of experience, is in hospital. We are generally shocked by what has happened. The condition is stable. There is no danger to life," said Kristaps Amsils, the company's Chairman of the Board.
The company has more than 20 trucks on the road daily. The company can see that the truck has not broken the speed limit because it is equipped with a GPS tracking system that can monitor the speed at which the driver is traveling.
The length of time a driver has been behind the wheel is both good and bad. It turns out that ageing drivers are one of the reasons why accidents happen, Irbītis confirmed. It is a problem across Europe. And young people do not find the profession desirable.
The pilot project analyses every single accident and it is the health of older drivers that is of concern. One died at the wheel and a crash followed. In three others, the driver was no longer able to control the steering wheel.
"Whether these recent accidents, the serious accidents that have happened, are health-related, medical-related, this needs to be investigated. It has to be clarified. The high percentage of trucks involved in accidents at the moment is a cause for some concern," Irbītis said.
More and more companies are putting phones on their cars asking other drivers to rate how they drive to monitor drivers' behavior on the road. Dobeles dzirnavnieks has also done so.
