The statistics are alarming. While large trucks make up approximately 4 percent of the registered vehicles on the nation's roadways, they account for almost 10 percent of accidents involving fatalities-and the numbers of truck crashes and related injuries and fatalities increase every year. Last year, trucking revenues totaled $610 billion, which is estimated to double by 2015. With payment incentives that focus on deadlines and moving cargo rapidly for pay by the mile or by weight, the trucking industry has created a killing field on US roads.

So what can we do to stop the carnage?...