To enhance road safety, the Danish Minister of Transport set up a Multidisciplinary Road Accident Analysis Group - AVU - in 1996. The objective of the group was to carry out in-depth analyses of specific types of accidents. As part of this task, the group analysed 21 accidents involving trucks. The analyses are based on material from various authorities, inspection of accident sites and interviews with the parties involved. The accident factors were to a fairly equal degree linked to both the truck drivers and their counterparts. Insufficient searching for visual information was an important factor for truck drivers as well as their counterparts. Young age and/or inexperience as accident factors were more often found among the counterparts. Speed, on the other hand, was more often an accident or injury factor among the truck drivers. Truck defects were found to be of importance in 3 accidents. On the other hand it was clear that the normal construction/dimensions of trucks can contribute to initiating accident situations. Their somewhat inferior breaking- and evasion qualities can have as a result, that situations more often than for passenger cars, develop into collisions, and that the collisions happen at a relatively higher speed. Finally, the size and weight of trucks means that collisions result in more serious personal injury than similar collisions with passenger cars. (A)
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