Underride Safety Protection: Benefit-Cost Assessment of Rear-Impact Guards for the North Dakota Farm Truck Fleet

The North Dakota Legislature recently passed a law exempting the state's agricultural truck fleet from a federal safety program requirement for rear-guard equipment on large trucks. This equipment has been shown to reduce crash severity when a passenger vehicle collides with the rear of the truck. This study uses truck fleet, truck crash, and injury severity data to estimate the public safety benefit derived from passenger-vehicle underride protection during rear-end crashes involving large agricultural trucks in North Dakota. A benefit-cost analysis of crash injury avoidance is developed based on the frequency and severity of rear-end truck collisions in North Dakota between 2001 and 2007. The injury avoidance benefits and commercial vehicle safety grant benefits are estimated to be $11.4 to $20.2 million during the seven-year depreciable truck life. The public safety benefits for rear-impact guards are higher than the estimated lifetime cost for the equipment and maintenance of $8.1 million.

• Record URL:
  http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/15389580802593210
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/49192340
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Taylor & Francis
• Authors:
  • Vachal, Kimberly
  • Tumuhairwe, Esther K
  • Berwick, Mark
• Publication Date: 2009

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 178-183
• Serial:
  • Traffic Injury Prevention
  • Volume: 10
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • ISSN: 1538-9588
  • Serial URL: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/15389588.html

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Benefit cost analysis; Crash injuries; Crash severity; Crashes; Farm vehicles; Policy, legislation and regulation; Protection; Safety; Trucks; Underride guards; Vehicle safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Agricultural vehicles; Rear impact guards
• Geographic Terms: North Dakota
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01129754
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 29 2009 7:42AM