According to the Federal Carrier Motor Safety Administration (FMCSA), 88% of crashes involving heavy trucks or other large vehicles are primarily caused by action or inaction by the truck driver or the driver of the other vehicle involved.
The FCMSA concluded this from The Large Truck Crash Causation Study, a 2006 study conducted with the help of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to determine the major causes of deadly and other serious truck accidents.
The two agencies investigated a sample of fatal and injury crashes between April 2001 and December 2003 at 24 sites in 17 states. The total sample of 967 collisions involved at least one large truck and resulted in at least one fatality or injury.
The study found that the behavior of the drivers of large trucks and other vehicles involved in truck crashes are ten times more likely to be the cause of the crash than factors such as weather, road conditions, or vehicle performance.
In July 2009, a Virginia Tech University Transportation Institute study found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater. Dialing a cell phone and using or reaching for an electronic device increased risk of collision about six times in cars and trucks. (The Virginia Tech researchers found the risks of texting generally applied to all drivers, not just truckers. A separate report by Car and Driver magazine found that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving.)
Driver Error & Truck Accidents
Using the data released by the FCMSA, an independent legal advocacy group has found that existing policies by some trucking companies contribute sharply towards the type of driver behavior that causes truck accidents.
Companies in violation with safety standards may operate with pay systems and delivery schedules that encourage truck drivers to exceed the speed limit or work longer hours than the maximum limited by the law. These polices can lead to speeding or other reckless driving which shortens the time for a driver to react to an obstacle in the road ahead or driver fatigue, which slows the reaction time of drivers during critical moments. This can mean the difference between life and death for passenger cars sharing the highway with tractor-trailers.
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