Study Finds Inadequate Brakes to Be Main Truck Safety Factor

Brake systems should get the highest priority in efforts to improve the safety record of large trucks, the Transportation Department said Tuesday.

In a report to Congress, the department estimated that poor braking could be a contributing factor in as many as one-third of all trucking accidents.

More than 5,600 people were killed and 171,232 others injured in the 400,000 accidents that involved heavy and medium-weight trucks in 1984, the most recent year for which complete figures were available.

The department did not call for any specific legislation, however, or recommend that anti-locking brake systems be required on trucks.

In general, the report suggested further research into brake performance and truck design as part of a joint government and industry safety effort.

It said that efforts to improve brake systems “should receive the highest priority” and described results of truck manufacturers’ tests of the anti-lock systems, which are used in Europe, as encouraging.

The department also said that more consideration should be given to improving the stability of trucks on the road, particularly to reducing the risk of rolling over in accidents. Rollovers account for about 60% of accidents in which the occupants of trucks are killed.

“While trucks can never be designed as roll stable as cars, worst-case tendencies can be avoided through prudent vehicle specification and design,” the study concluded.