Features of Fatal Truck Accidents Compared with Sedans

This study clarified the features of fatal truck-pedestrian and truck-cyclist accidents by a comparison with sedans. Fatal accident data from the Japanese Institute Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA) database were analyzed for the years 2012 ∼ 2016. The trucks were classified into three categories: heavy-, medium-, and light-duty. All three categories had higher percentages of pedestrians as fatal collision partners as opposed to cyclists. Every truck category had significantiy higher percentages of pedestrian fatalities due to daytime right turns than sedans. Heavy-duty trucks had significantly higher percentages of cyclist fatalities due to daytime and nighttime left turns than sedans. These results show that the design specifications for new sensing technology to avoid collisions with pedestrians and cyclists should differ among vehicle types. The knowledge obtained in this study will be useful to develop new technology or systems that are effective in dangerous situations between trucks and pedestrians or cyclists.