ROAD ACCIDENTS OF TRAILER COMBINATIONS IN FINLAND. A CASE STUDY

In the years 1982-1986, road accident investigation teams in four counties in Finland made in-depth investigations of 171 accidents involving at least one lorry and trailer or lorry and semitrailer combination. About 1/2 of the accidents were collision between motor vehicles outside junctions, 1/4 collisions at junctions, 1/7 were single accidents and 1/10 accidents involving pedestrians, cyclists or mopedists. The trailer combination was considered the main guilty party in 39% of the collisions between motor vehicles. 44% of the collisions between motor vehicles caused by trailer combinations were rear-end collisions or accidents caused by last maneouvres to avoid a rear-end collision. 22% of the single accidents were also of the latter type. These accidents were frequently caused by too close following and too high speed. Driver fatigue was one of the causes in 35% of the single accidents and 16% of the collisions were caused by trailer combinations. Defective or ineffective brakes were one of the accident causes in 11 cases. The brakes were sufficiently effective and the brake force distribution between the lorry and the trailer was well balanced only in 1/7 of the trailer combinations involved in the accidents. (TRRL)

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9513829952
• Corporate Authors:

  Technical Research Centre of Finland

  Vuorimiehentie 5
  SF-02150 Espoo 15,   Finland 
• Authors:
  • Kallberg, V-P
• Publication Date: 1987

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 80 p.
• Serial:
  • VTT-TUTK
  • Issue Number: 511
  • Publisher: Technical Research Centre of Finland
  • ISSN: 0358-5077

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Braking; Crashes; On the scene crash investigation; Trailers; Trucks
• ITRD Terms: 1643: Accident; 1874: Braking; 1236: Lorry; 1611: On the spot accident investigation; 1203: Trailer
• Subject Areas: Highways; Motor Carriers; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00492376
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
• ISBN: 951-38-2995-2
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 31 1990 12:00AM