TRUCKS INVOLVED IN FATAL ACCIDENTS, CODEBOOK 1989 (VERSION DECEMBER 19, 1991). SPECIAL REPORT

This report provides weighted and unweighted one-way frequencies for all the vehicles in UMTRI's file of Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents, 1989. This file combines the coverage of the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) data with the detail of the Office of Motor Carriers (OMC) data. Where no OMC report could be found for a medium or heavy truck listed by FARS, UMTRI conducted a survey, by telephone interview, to obtain the desired information on ownership, type of trip, vehicle configuration, cargo weights, and lengths. Some sampling was done in selecting the cases for interview. Half the cases were sampled where the FARS body type and vehicle trailering variables indicated the vehicle was a straight truck or a tractor with one trailer. All other cases that could not be matched with an OMC report were selected for interview. The sampling has only a negligible effect on the accuracy of population estimates derived from the file. Tractors accounted for 70.0% of the power units. Tractors with twin trailers made up only 4.0% of the involvements. Only 21.0% of the accidents occurred on Interstate highways. Night and twilight comprised 38.3% of the accidents. This dataset has 5,288 cases, down 3.3% from 5,467 last year.