The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has published a plan for reviewing and evaluating safety standards covering antilock brake systems for heavy trucks and rear impact guards for trailers.

The agency will work with police from at least two large states over the next two years to obtain crash data involving tractor-trailers, bobtail tractors and medium and heavy-duty single-unit trucks. The data will include the basic state crash report plus a supplemental form indicating whether or not the vehicle was ABS-equipped. A second form will describe the rear impact guar on the trailer and damage pattern on the passenger vehicle for accidents in which a truck or tractor/trailer was hit in the rear by a passenger vehicle.
NHTSA expects to compile accident reports on approximately 10,000 tractor-trailer crashes and 5,000 single unit truck crashes. It estimates about 1,000 truck-trailer accidents and 700 straight truck accidents will involve rear-end collisions by passenger vehicles. Data collection will begin in January 2001.
The plan is available on the Internet at www.nhtsa.dot/gov/cars/rules/regrev/evaluate/121223.html. Suggestions or comments on the evaluation plan may be submitted to Charles J. Kahane, chief, Evaluation Div., NPP-22, Plans and Policy, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Room 5208, 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, D.C., 20590. Telephone: (202) 366-2560. FAX: (202) 366-2559. E-mail: ckahane@nhtsa.dot.gov.