In 2000, 5,211 people were killed and 140,000 were injured in crashes involving trucks (with gross weight over 10,000 pounds). Within the last decade there has been a 25 percent increase of these vehicles and a 41 percent increase of the miles these vehicles travel, thus the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) is determined to make sense of why these crashes occur and how the numbers can be alleviated. Literature reviews hint that car drivers expect trucks to operate in the same manner as cars and are unaware of the dangers of driving near trucks. Crash data files do not serve as a reliable source. Sponsored by American Automobile Association (AAA) Foundation for Traffic Safety, UMTRI has launched a study to understand driver activity prior to fatal accidents involving cars and trucks. Drivers' actions preceding fatal accidents have been linked to behavioral patterns, but the chief source of these accidents are car drivers who are unaware of the way trucks operate, hence the number of fatal accidents can be prevented by education. UMTRI has investigated several methods of education including passive and active participation as well as computer-simulated games. Due to these findings, AAA has initiated a nationwide campaign to educate drivers about how they can reduce these fatal accidents.
Abstract