BC Trucking Association

Due to the very public nature of trucking―a truck shares its workspace daily with people in cars, SUVs, vans and pick-up trucks―the industry undergoes intense scrutiny. As a result, when crashes involving large trucks occur, they become high profile cases that are subject to considerable media coverage, more so than road accidents between other types of vehicles.

One of the B.C. Trucking Association’s (BCTA’s) roles is to provide accurate information about the safety record of our industry. The truth is that crashes involving large trucks are infrequent and steadily decreasing in occurrence. Nevertheless, the trucking industry does not have the luxury of becoming complacent when it comes to safety. Constant vigilance and proactive advocacy and training are paramount if we want to continually improve our record and reduce the number of large truck crashes on our roads.

The Truth behind Truck Crashes

Traffic safety research in Canada and the U.S. demonstrates, first, that the actions of car drivers contribute more to fatal crashes involving cars and large trucks than those of truck drivers and, second, that truck crashes are not as frequent to begin with as you would think.

According to a 2004 Traffic Injury Research Foundation report, heavy truck crashes accounted for 17% to 19% of all motor vehicle deaths and 5% of all motor vehicle injuries in Canada in 2001. The number of people killed and injured in collisions involving a heavy truck actually declined by 12% and 7% respectively between 1994 and 2001. The same study also noted that “heavy-truck drivers were generally less likely than drivers of passenger vehicles to have taken improper driving actions, especially in fatal crashes.”

A US Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) study of the entire U.S. conducted in 2007 also found that in 56% of the two-vehicle collisions between one passenger vehicle (a car, SUV, van or pickup truck) and one truck, the passenger vehicles caused the collision. An earlier FMCSA study looking at critical events that lead to fatal truck crashes in Michigan between 1996 and 2001 found that 79.1% of large truck crashes were the result of factors such as vehicle failure, road conditions and the actions of other vehicles, while only 20.9% were attributed to the action of the truck driver (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Critical events in large truck fatal crashes (Michigan) 1996 to 2001

Source: Large Truck Crash Causation Study (LTCCS)

Similarly, in a 1998 University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) study of the relative contribution of passenger car drivers and truck drivers to car-truck crashes, researchers determined that passenger car drivers contributed to fatal crashes 74.1% of the time compared to 34.1% for truck drivers. This total adds up to 108.2% to account for the crashes where both drivers were at fault. The report also stated:

Head-ons, rear-ends, and sideswipes are all crash configurations where the configuration and location of the collision itself is a powerful clue to the relative contribution of the drivers involved. Together these crash types account for 53.7% of passenger vehicle driver fatalities in truck-passenger vehicle collisions. In head-on crashes, the impact took place in the truck’s lane over eight times as often as in the passenger vehicle’s lane. In opposite direction sideswipes, which are similar to head-on crashes, the passenger vehicle encroached into the truck’s lane six times as often as the truck into the passenger vehicle’s lane. In rear-end fatal crashes, the passenger vehicle was the striking vehicle over five times as often as the truck.

(Page 24, UMTRI 98-25)

The average motorist apparently assumes that the operation of cars and large trucks is virtually the same, and that motorist is also often a poor judge of the speed, manoeuvrability, braking and acceleration capabilities of larger vehicles. According to a 2002 American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety report, five actions account for 65% of improper car driver behaviour in car-truck crashes:

• Failing to keep in lane
• Driving too fast for conditions or in excess of speed limit
• Failing to yield right of way
• Failing to obey traffic control devices
• Being inattentive

Comparable data is not available for B.C., but there is no reason to believe that the causes of car-truck crashes here would be any different from the US and the rest of Canada.

The BC Trucking Safety Record

According to statistics from the Insurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC), injury and fatal heavy truck crashes are continuing to decline steadily in B.C., despite the fact that the number of licensed heavy commercial vehicles (defined as having a gross vehicle weight [GVW] greater than 10,900 kg) is increasing (see Figure 2). Between 1999 and 2005, the number of licensed heavy commercial vehicles on the road increased from 48,900 to 58,400, an increase of 19.4% at an average of 3% per year.

Figure 2: Licensed Heavy Commercial Vehicles (B.C.) 1999 to 2005

Source: ICBC

Simply counting the number of crashes each year does not provide a clear picture of crash data or trends, however, because the resulting number doesn’t include any information on “exposure” or a driver’s risk of a crash. Intuitively, most people recognise that the more someone drives, the greater the chance that the driver will be involved in an accident. Lacking data for the number of vehicle kilometres driven by heavy commercial vehicle drivers in B.C., we have used the number of licensed vehicles as a proxy to put the crash data into context.

Figure 3: Total Injury & Fatality Crashes Involving Heavy Commercial Vehicles (B.C.) 1999-2005
Per 10,000 Licensed Heavy Commercial Vehicles

Source: ICBC Traffic Collision Statistics 2005

Figure 3 shows the number of injury and fatality crashes per 10,000 licensed heavy commercial vehicles, which has been on a slow but steady decline since 1999. In 2005, there were 181 injury and fatality crashes involving heavy commercial vehicles in B.C., down from 216 in 1999, a decrease of 16.3%, despite the fact that the number of registered large commercial vehicles in the province increased by 9,500 over the same period.

The B.C. trucking safety record is good and steadily improving, but we know we can’t be complacent. BCTA continues to work with industry and government officials to improve both the truck safety record and the public’s perception of safety on the road.

Note: Sources for the statistics quoted in this article are available from BCTA upon request. Please contact BCTA’s Shelley McGuinness, Communications Specialist, for a copy of the article with citations.