On Thursday, December 10, 2020, about 9:39 a.m. Pacific standard time, a 2019 Isuzu NPR-HD box truck, being driven by a 45-year-old male, collided with a group of bicyclists and a 2019 Subaru Outback sport utility vehicle (SUV) that were traveling in the rightmost southbound lane of US Highway 95 in Clark County, Nevada. Five of the bicyclists died, one bicyclist sustained serious injuries, one bicyclist and the driver of the SUV sustained minor injuries, and the driver of the box truck was uninjured. After impact, both the SUV and the box truck came to a controlled stop on the right shoulder of the roadway.
We determined that the probable cause of the Searchlight, Nevada, crash was the box truck driver’s impairment and fatigue stemming from his use of methamphetamine. Contributing to the crash was the decision made by the bicyclists to ride in the right travel lane of a 75-mph roadway.
Strategies are needed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to reduce fatalities, injuries, and crashes involving drug-impaired drivers. In Countermeasures That Work: A Highway Safety Countermeasure Guide for State Highway Safety Offices, the NTSB has previously recommended that NHTSA evaluate best practices and countermeasures found to be most effective in reducing fatalities, injuries, and crashes involving drug-impaired drivers, as well as provide additional guidance to the states on drug-impaired driving. The NTSB has previously recommended that the FMCSA determine the prevalence of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver use of impairing substances, particularly synthetic cannabinoids, and develop a plan to reduce the use of such substances. We have also recommended that the FMCSA work with motor carrier industry stakeholders to develop a plan to aid motor carriers in addressing CMV driver use of impairing substances, particularly those not covered under current drug-testing regulations, such as by disseminating information about using hair testing for drug use screening, promoting best practices by carriers, expanding impairment detection training and authority, and developing performance-based methods of evaluation.
The NTSB advocates for a Safe System Approach to protect vulnerable road users (VRUs), including bicyclists. Safety is a shared responsibility, and efforts by federal agencies including NHTSA, the Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, the Federal Highway Administration, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to prevent and mitigate crashes must address bicyclists and other VRUs.
