Who’s to blame in truck-vs.-car crashes? Usually cars, report says
The trucks are generally where they are supposed to be.
That might have been the main message in an American Trucking Assn. report released Tuesday that referred to four separate studies of accidents involving truckers and regular motorists.
In one such study of more than 8,300 fatal accidents performed by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, the drivers of cars and other light vehicles were assigned blame in 81% of the accidents.
Cars “were the encroaching vehicle in 89% of head-on crashes, 88% of opposite-direction sideswipes, 80% of rear-end crashes, and 72% of same-direction sideswipes,” the report said.
Factors most often cited as reasons for the accidents were driving “too fast for conditions,” “improper following,” and “failure to keep in lane.”
Bill Graves, president and CEO of the American Trucking Assn., said truckers are too often blamed for accidents they could not prevent.
The American Trucking Assn. is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry.
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