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Tractor-trailers and other commercial trucks played a role in just 8 percent of all traffic accidents in North Carolina last year, but they accounted for 16 percent of the state's highway fatalities.

With a death toll of 166 last year, North Carolina ranked ninth in the country for truck fatalities.

So, it's no wonder that federal, state and regional officials launched an effort Wednesday to improve truck safety. The initiative, "Be Safe, Share the Space" is a partnership of various public and private agencies led by the Governor's Highway Safety Program and the state Department of Transportation.

"Statistics show that crashes involving commercial motor vehicles are more likely to result in fatalities," said Darrell Jernigan, director of the highway safety agency.

"'Be Safe, Share the Space' aims to educate both motorists and trucking companies on the importance of driving safely and complying with size and weight regulations," he said.

The program was announced at the Volvo Trucks North America headquarters on National Service Road in western Greensboro, near the major truck artery of Interstate 40.

"North Carolina, since the early 1990s, has remained among the top 10 states for fatal crashes (involving trucks)," Chris Hartley, of the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration, told the gathering of state officials, truck industry executives, police and commercial drivers.

The effort is aimed not just at truck drivers and companies that employ them, but also at people in cars whose unsafe driving habits can trigger truck wrecks.

In addition, it will train police officers across the state to spot violations of truck safety regulations, Jernigan said.

It is hard to pinpoint one factor that primarily accounts for North Carolina's subpar status in truck accidents, Jernigan said.

Speeding truckers and trucks with faulty brakes are areas for scrutiny, he said.

But car drivers also are part of the problem when they make careless mistakes, which often stem from a misunderstanding of the many blind spots that truckers have when pulling one or more trailers, he said.

A key part of the effort will be to educate car drivers about these "no zones" — spots to the front, rear and on both sides where commercial drivers' vision is blocked either by the trailer, by a rear-view mirror's limitations or by the truck engine.

Motorists put themselves at risk when they travel in these areas and assume that a truck driver is aware of their presence, Jernigan said.

Another problem is the failure to wear seat belts as required by law, resulting in death where "lesser injuries or no injury at all would have resulted otherwise," Jernigan said.

He acknowledged that local police do not have the authority to enforce federal safety rules if they pull over a truck for some reason. But he said if the violation is serious enough, a local officer could detain the truck indefinitely.

"There are certain violations where they can be held there until a motor-carrier enforcement officer can arrive," Jernigan said.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or twireback@news-record.com