The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has undertaken a wide variety of programs to improve the safety of truck operations and reduce the toll from traffic accidents. FMCSA is the primary sponsor of the Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents (TIFA) survey, conducted annually by the Center for National Truck Statistics (CNTS) at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). The TIFA survey is based on the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) file, which is compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The TIFA file is not intended to replace the FARS file but to supplement and enhance the FARS file by improving the identification of trucks in the file and supplying a more detailed description of the physical configuration of trucks involved in a fatal crash. There are important differences between the set of cases identified in FARS as large trucks and the population of trucks in the TIFA file. The TIFA file identifies about 300 more trucks as involved in a fatal accident than does the FARS file. Among other consequences, TIFA identifies about 5,700 fatalities annually, about 6% more than FARS. The purpose of this report is to document and discuss some of the differences between truck cases as identified in the FARS file and the cases in UMTRI's TIFA file. There are significant differences in the counts of trucks in each file, as well as some differences in details describing the vehicles. In addition, this report will illustrate some of the detail about the configuration and usage of trucks involved in fatal accidents that the TIFA data collection protocol can provide.
Samenvatting