This study examined the relative contribution of truck and passenger vehicle drivers to truck-passenger vehicle traffic crashes. The data used covered fatal crashes, using UMTRI's Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents file, and nonfatal crashes, using NHTSA’s General Estimates System file. Analysis files were constructed for crashes involving one truck and one passenger vehicle, either a car, sport utility vehicle, passenger van, or pickup truck. For fatal crashes, the contribution of each driver was gauged primarily by examining the coding of driver-related factors. Driver-related factors were compared with a separate variable that records the relative movement and position of the vehicles prior to the crash. Certain crash configurations strongly suggest relative contribution to the occurrence of the crash. Accordingly, by examining the coding of driver-related factors by crash configuration, we were able to evaluate the reliability of the driver-related factors variable. It appears that in fatal truck-passenger vehicle collisions, the passenger vehicle driver contributes more heavily to the crash than the truck driver. This finding is most firmly established in crashes where the physical nature of the collision suggests responsibility. For nonfatal truck-passenger vehicle crashes, the evidence is considerably less clear. Only the partial evidence of traffic violations is available in existing crash datasets. Nevertheless, it does appear in nonfatal truck-car crashes that truck drivers may contribute somewhat more than passenger vehicle drivers, though this conclusion is tentative. (A)
Abstract