HSIS Summary Report
Council, F.M., D.L. Harkey, D.T. Nabors, A.J. Khattak, and Y.M. Mohamedshah
Jun-04
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has given high priority to research regarding collisions between large trucks (gross vehicle weight > 4,540 kilograms (10,000 pounds)) and other vehicles on the roadway. This research aims to improve knowledge about the high-risk behaviors of truck and passenger vehicle (car) drivers. In 1998, large trucks accounted for 7 percent of the total vehicle miles traveled but were involved in 13 percent of all traffic fatalities (5,374 of 41,471). In these truck crashes, the car’s occupants were much more likely than the truck driver to be killed (78 percent of the fatalities were car occupants) or injured (76 percent of the injuries were sustained by car occupants).(1) Two-thirds of all police-reported truck crashes involved a truck and another vehicle, and 60 percent of all truck crashes involving a fatality were two-vehicle car-truck crashes.(2) To address this critical issue, FMCSA has set a goal to reduce truck involved fatal crashes by 41 percent by 2008. Meeting this goal will require improving truck safety and enhancing truck and car drivers’ behavior and performance.
An Examination of Fault, Unsafe Driving Acts, and Total Harm in Car-Truck Collisions
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations; Heavy duty vehicles; High risk drivers; Multiple vehicle accidents; Truck traffic
HSIS Summary Reports are two to eight pages in length and include a brief description of the issue addressed, data used, methodology applied, significant results, and practical implications.
A variety of research studies have been performed using data from HSIS. Many of the final reports prepared are now available electronically.
Research reports are often summarized in executive summaries, technical briefs, or other abbreviated formats. Included here are those road safety summaries that involved research using HSIS data.
In addition to conducting research, HSIS resources are also used to develop products that can be used by practitioners in the analysis of safety problems.
HSIS data are sometimes used in research studies that result in other types of finished products, such as dissertations, theses, and conference proceedings.
