Kansas Researchers: Most Large Truck Crashes Caused by Driver Error

Two Kansas State University civil engineers working to make Kansas roads and highways safer by reducing the number and severity of vehicular crashes that involve large, cargo-carrying trucks, say the majority of such accidents are driver-related. Sunanda Dissanayake, associate professor of civil engineering, and Siddhartha Kotikalapudi, master’s student in civil engineering, India, are looking at five years’ worth of statistics about crashes involving commercial trucks. Although large trucks account for just 3 percent of registered vehicles in the United States, truck-related crashes tend to be more severe than non-truck crashes.