Safety considerations associated with truck size and weights policy deliberations.

Considerable debate has focused on the safety of commercial heavy trucks, and particularly on the question of whether allowing truck sizes and weights to increase would degrade safety. Efforts to answer that question have centred on two approaches: crash data analyses and, comparative analyses of the safety-related engineering performance capabilities of various truck configurations. This paper summarises recent crash data analysis work. Together, these two approaches yield insights into the potential safety outcomes that could result if truck size and weights requirements were changed. Some outcomes might not be positive. The paper concludes with a discussion of the conditions under which positive outcomes might be possible. See also ITRD 895284.