GENEVA — We’ve known for years that North American car drivers are overwhelmingly at fault in crashes with commercial vehicles and now the same can be said in Europe as well. 

Truck drivers cause only 25 percent of accidents involving cars and commercial driver fatigue is responsible for only 6 percent of truck-related wrecks in Europe, according to a very comprehensive new crash causation study by the European Commission and the International Road Transport Union.

The authors of the report, which was presented last month at the 12th World Conference on Transport Research in Portugal, analyzed 3,000 parameters involving infrastructure, vehicles, and human factors in 624 truck-related accidents in seven European countries.

Echoing many North American studies, the report concluded that human error was the cause of over 85 percent of the accidents, with only a quarter of those by the truck driver.

Weather conditions (4%); infrastructure conditions (5%); technical failures of the vehicle (5.3%) or problems with the load (1.4%) all played a minor role in the crashes.

When an engineering work was the main cause of the accident, in one out of three cases, the accident occurred in an intersection.

Fatigue, considered to be part of human error, was determined to be the cause of only 6 percent of the accidents.  

North American and European researchers
agree: More often than not, this
is the fault of a four-wheel driver.

When it was sited as a factor, 90 percent of fatigue related accidents occur on the highway, as opposed to in urban cities. Most occurred between the hours of 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. as well as 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

The authors note, though, that proving fatigue to be the main cause of an accident is difficult.

"There are various stages of vigilance, from slight fatigue to sleeping and fatigue is often linked to other causes such as being inattentive."

Over 90 percent of truck-related crashes involve at least one other road user (59% involve just two vehicles). Overall, the three main causes for accidents between a truck and other vehicles is non-adapted speed, failure to observe intersection rules, and improper lane changes.

Single-truck accidents represented only 7 percent of truck-involved crashes. Out of that small number, half of single-truck accidents are caused by three major factors: Non-adapted speed according to the situation (20.3%); fatigue (18.6%); and loss of road friction (11.9%).

While it’s a big focus for transport regulators on both sides of the pond these days, driver inattention or distraction was deemed to be the cause of only 8.4 percent of single truck accidents.

Falling ill behind the wheel, problems with the load, and drugs and alcohol all played very minor roles — all under 5 percent of crashes.

The authors listed several recommendations to further improve highway safety:

For various types of accidents, the report urged, among other things: more effective traffic singling and warnings; increased enforcement regarding non-adapted speed (going too fast for conditions); more attention on training and education on intersection rules; and better planning and maintenance of road infrastructure.

It also advised vehicle manufacturers to build on technology involving ultrasonic guard system for collision zones, better blind spot mirrors, adaptive cruise control, lane guard and lane change assistance systems, and traction and control stability.

There was also a welcome message for the media as well: "Report objectively and based on facts and figures on who is causing the accident."

That would be nice, indeed.