Exploring the relationship between truck load capacity and traffic accidents in the European Union

Abstract

Under the recent framework developed in the European Union to extend the use of higher capacity goods vehicles, this article originally analyzes how different truck configurations by load capacity, impact road safety. Through the application of econometric techniques to panel data for EU28 and controlling for explanatory variables, we find that increased truck load capacity does not necessarily get worse traffic safety. Specifically, heavy trucks do not seem to be associated with more traffic fatalities/accidents, medium trucks appear to be the worst performers for fatalities and lighter trucks the worst for accidents.

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Vehicle Damage Level in Fatal Truck-Related Accidents and Differences in Rural and Urban Areas

“…The difference between truck weight in terms of vehicle damage level is statistically significant for a slightly lower probability to disabling damage (rural: -0.010, urban: -0.063) and functional damage (rural: -0.013, urban: -0.049). Obvious conclusion that light truck is prone to increase the probability of more severe crash is also found by [33,36,37].…”

Public Private Partnership Management Effects on Road Safety Outcomes

“…Table 2 reports the descriptive statistics of the dependent variables by operator and quality of the road design. There has been significant interest on the relation between road accidents and traffic conditions such as traffic flows (Martin, 2002;Lord et al, 2005a;Anastasopoulos and Mannering, 2009), traffic mix (Albalate, 2011;Castillo-Manzano et al, 2016) and speed of driving (Nilsson, 2004;Pei et al, 2012;Quddus, 2013). On the one hand, most studies reveal a positive relationship between accidents and traffic flow and traffic mix (Wang et al, 2013).…”

“…On the one hand, most studies reveal a positive relationship between accidents and traffic flow and traffic mix (Wang et al, 2013). However, other studies found that heavy vehicles do not seem to be associated with poorer road safety outcomes (Albalate, 2011;Castillo-Manzano et al, 2016). Thus, our model will control the number of vehicles per km On the other hand, the impact of variation in speed on road safety has been widely investigated but results suggest that speed has heterogeneous effects on road safety (Wang et al, 2013;Imprialou et al, 2006) and no conclusive results are derived.…”

Management of Truck Loading Weight: A Critical Review of the Literature and Recommended Remedies

“…However, the weight enforcement and traffic data collection activities may not be reduced. In fact, the overall coverage and effectiveness may significantly increase [28].…”