• Over 40% of the new highway vehicles sold each
year are not cars. These "non cars" include
everything from minivans and small pickups to tractor-trailer
rigs. These "trucks" do not have to meet the same
government safety standards as cars, even though most of them
are used almost exclusively for the same purpose - to
transport people.
• While trucks are gradually being brought up to passenger cars safety standards most of the ones now on the road lack such simple and necessary safety features as head rests and side impact protection. Perhaps most importantly, most trucks cannot meet the roof strength standard for cars, even though, as a class, they are more likely to be involved in rollover accidents than cars.
Heavy Trucks
• Heavy trucks are a special case. They are the
least crashworthy vehicles on the road, making truck driving
-at least for certain types of rigs - the most dangerous
occupation in the country. Over half the fatalities in the
big rigs occur in rollover accidents because of weak roofs; a
fact known to the manufacturers for at least 15 years. Heavy
rigs, despite being diesel fueled*, produce about 60 fuel
fire deaths each year. There is a simple, no cost fix for
this which the industry has failed to employ because of
ignorance and lack of interest. The lack of crashworthiness
in heavy trucks effects light vehicle safety in complicated
ways and is partially responsible (along with other big rig
defects like a lack of underride protection) for the
thousands of deaths of light vehicle occupants each year that
occur as a result of collisions with heavy trucks.
* Diesel fuel is much harder to ignite than gasoline.
The flash point of diesel in the tanks is about 140 degrees
F. The flash point of gasoline is about -35 degrees F. There
is generally only one possible ignition source for a diesel
fuel fire following a crash, gasoline can be ignited by a
number of sources.
For more about semi's see the Truck Safety page .