The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released its June 2003 study called, "An Analysis of Fatal Large Truck Crashes."

The agency’s study highlighted and analyzed different types of fatal crashes involving passenger vehicles and large trucks (more than 10,000 pounds GVWR). The objective of this study by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) was to examine the characteristics of large fatal truck crashes. Fatal crashes involving single-unit and combination trucks were studied. Two-vehicle crashes consisting of a large truck and one other vehicle were examined for vehicle and driver-related factors.
Using data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 1996-2000 and from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute's Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents Survey (TIFA), characteristics of large truck crashes, including rollovers and jackknifes were analyzed.
Some of the studies' results add to recent research that finds passenger car drivers share a greater responsibility for car/truck crashes than truck drivers. Rear-end fatal collisions, for example, where passenger cars strike commercial motor vehicles, are almost four times as likely as trucks rear-ending passenger cars. Head-on collisions with passenger cars in the truck's lane occur more than 10 times as often as the truck encroaching in the passenger car's lane. In addition, opposite direction sideswipes involving a passenger car striking the truck in the truck's lane occur more than 12 times as often as trucks encroaching on the passenger car.
A copy of the full report can be downloaded at the following web location: www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/Rpts/2003/809-569.pdf.