RISK ROADWAY FACTORS IN TRUCK-INVOLVED COLLISIONS

This report develops a comprehensive understanding of the truck-safety problem from the perspective of: 1) Roadway hazards, involving analysis of truck-involved crashes in work zones; 2) Socio-economic and driver occupational factors, involving examination of driver and work characteristics on truck crash occurrence and frequency. More specifically, the study is split into two parallel but complementary efforts, one relying on Highway Safety Information System crash and road inventory data and another looking at a longitudinal dataset of crashes, truck-driver characteristics and occupational factors obtained from a major for-hire truck-carrier. Two manuscripts resulting from each parallel research effort are included in the body of the report. The first effort analyzes how work zone attributes (such as type of work zone, presence of warning signs and cones, type of activity in the work zone, location of the crash in the work zone, construction impact of the wok zone on the roadway and the type of work being done in the work zone) influence crash injury risk and specifically examine the factors that increase large truck crash involvement in work zones. In 2000, North Carolina changed their accident forms t