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 Compared to single-trailer trucks, double-trailer trucks are 32% more often involved in fatal crashes7 and 200% more likely to be in interstate highway crashes.8 Recent studies of heavier combination trucks, including different configurations, have concluded that there is no safety justification available for longer, heavier trucks,9 and that substantially increasing the sizes and weights of combination rigs would likely increase safety risks per vehicle mile traveled.10 |
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Crashes in which truck-tractors pulling two or three trailers were involved have the highest costs of any type of truck in a fatal crash. The average cost found by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in its 2006 truck crash cost study was $3.6 million per fatal crash for trucks with two or three trailers. And this cost estimate even excludes other societal cost figures.11
At least 10% to 20% of the trucks on the road run illegally overweight.12 Overweight trucks are not only a safety hazard, but they are also the overwhelming cause of highway and bridge destruction,13 resulting in billions of taxpayer dollars being wasted.14
7 K.C. Campbell, “Ten Years of Large Truck Safety Research,” presented at Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association/Department of Transportation Motor Truck Research Symposium, Washington, D.C., July 18, 1990.
8 Stein and Jones, “Crash Involvement of Large Trucks by Configuration: A Case-Control Study,” American Journal of Public Health, May 1988, Vol. 78, No.5. http://biblioteca.universia.net/html_bura/ficha/params/id/6863920.html (page 4).
9 Transportation Research Board Special Report 267: Regulation of Weights, Lengths, and Widths of Commercial Motor Vehicles, 2002.
10 Longer and/or Longer and Heavier Goods Vehicles (LHVs) — A Study of the Likely Effects if Permitted in the UK: Final Report PPR285 cTRL, June 2008.
11 Unit Costs of Medium and Heavy Truck Crashes, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), December 2006.
12 U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), FHWA, Overweight Vehicles — Penalties and Permits: An Inventory of State Practices, March 1994.
13 Gongkang Fu, et al., Effect of Truck Weight on Bridge Network Costs, NCHRP Report 495, 2003; Bala Sivakumar, et al., Legal Truck Loads and AASHTO Legal Loads for Posting, NHCRP Report 575, 2007.
14 Effects of Increasing Truck Weights on Steel and Pre-Stressed Bridges — Final Report 2003-16, Minnesota Dept. of Transportation, March 2003; Estimating the Cost of Overweight Vehicle Travel on Arizona Roads, Final Report 528, Jan. 2006; Infrastructure Report Card 2005, American Society of Civil Engineers; Maine’s Roads and Bridges, The Road Information Program, 2005; Road and Bridge National Fact Sheet 2008, The Road Information Program, March 2008; Impacts of Overweight Trucks and Axle Weight Exemptions, North Carolina Dept. of Transportation, June 23, 2005; Transect, Impact of Heavy Trucks on Bridge Investment, Task B Revised Report for FHWA, Austin, TX, 1993; Mohammadi, J., et al., The Effect of Increased Truck Weights Upon Illinois Highway Bridges, Illinois University Transportation Research Consortium for the Illinois Department of Transportation and the FHWA, FHWA/IL/RC-013, Chicago, IL, 1991.