Citation

Sullivan JM, Flannagan MJ. Accid. Reconstr. J. 2013; 23(3): 25-29.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Accident Reconstruction Journal)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In Minahan and O'Day's 1977 analysis of fatal car-truck underride crashes in Michigan and Texas, most accidents were found to occur on straight rural roadways at night and a linkage was drawn between the visibility of heavy trucks and crash risk. Subsequent studies have also found that disproportionately more fatal crashes involving angle and rear-end collisions between cars and tractor-semitrailers occur at night. In 1980, the National Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated a research program to examine truck conspicuity that resulted in the revision of safety standards for conspicuity treatments for tractor-semitrailers. In 2009, a phase-in of conspicuity treatments for tractor-semitrailers in the U.S. was completed; this paper uses logistic regression to analyze crash data from 1987 to 2009 to determine any change in the odds of a rear-end or angle crash occurring in darkness.

FINDINGS suggest that conspicuity treatments are most effective in reducing rear-end collisions (approximately 43% reduction) and moderately effective in reducing angle collisions (17% reduction) in darkness. (TRID)