Analysis of Risk Factors in Severity of Rural Truck Crashes

Vachal, Kimberly · 2016 · ROSA P / Mountain-Plains Consortium

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Summary

This study investigates the risk factors contributing to the severity of rural truck crashes in North Dakota, motivated by a disproportionate increase in truck-involved injury crashes relative to traffic growth. The surge in truck traffic, driven by oil and gas development in the western region, has raised safety concerns. While truck traffic density increased significantly, crash-injury risk rose at a higher rate than expected from volume alone, particularly in the northwest quadrant. The research aims to identify specific characteristics and contributing factors to inform targeted safety interventions. The analysis utilized crash data from 2010 to 2014 obtained from the North Dakota Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The study focused on injury crashes, including fatal and disabling injuries, to capture serious outcomes. Descriptive statistics compared truck-involved crashes to non-truck crashes across various dimensions, including location, road functional class, time of day, and vehicle type. To determine specific predictors of injury severity, the authors developed multivariate models for three distinct driver groups: truck drivers in multiple-vehicle crashes, other vehicle drivers in multiple-vehicle crashes, and truck drivers in single-vehicle crashes. Key findings reveal significant differences in risk factors depending on the driver group. Seat belt use was a significant predictor for severe injury likelihood across all models. For truck drivers in multiple-vehicle crashes, failure to stop or yield, rollover events, multiple truck involvement, and crashes occurring on curves or at intersections were associated with increased severe injury risk. For other vehicle drivers involved in crashes with trucks, alcohol or drug involvement, head-on and sideswipe collisions, rollovers, adverse weather, and distracted driving significantly increased the likelihood of severe injury. Descriptive analysis further highlighted that the northwest region accounted for 58% of serious injury crash events involving trucks. Liquid bulk cargo tanks and flatbeds were the most common truck body types in injury crashes, with angle impacts being the most frequent collision type. Truck drivers exhibited higher seat belt usage rates (80%) compared to other occupants (76%). The study concludes that understanding the distinct risk factors for different driver groups allows for more effective, targeted countermeasures. The findings suggest that interventions should focus on seat belt enforcement, addressing failure to yield, and mitigating risks associated with rollovers and specific collision types like head-on impacts. Given the sustained high density of truck traffic in North Dakota’s oil regions, these insights are critical for improving safety performance and reducing the incidence of severe injuries. The results align with previous national studies while highlighting localized factors, such as the impact of regional economic activity on crash patterns.

Key finding

Seat belt use significantly reduced severe injury likelihood for all driver groups, while truck drivers faced higher risks from failure to yield and rollovers, and other drivers faced higher risks from alcohol involvement and head-on collisions.

Methodology

dataset

Sample size: 19161

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• incidence prevalence
• demographic disparities
• pre crash contributing factors
• fatality injury trends
• induced exposure
• sex gender

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes