U.S. DOT to study truck crash causes

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 18, 2001) — The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has launched a two-year study of the causes of accidents involving large trucks.

 The research is the first national effort to collect crash data for the purpose of determining causal factors of large truck crashes, including drivers, equipment, the roadway, and the environment. The goal is to identify the specific causes of fatal and injury crashes involving large trucks, to find ways to help prevent them from occurring in the first place.

The study is a joint effort between the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It is part of a DOT initiative announced last May to help reduce the number deaths associated with truck crashes, said Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.

 More than 1000 crashes will be investigated during two years of data collection. As part of the project, the Volpe Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Mass., will build a crash database that will be reviewed and analyzed by FMCSA and NHTSA, then made available to the public.