OTTAWA, Ont. — Transport Canada admits the vast majority of car-truck collisions are caused by the driver of the vehicle with fewer axles.

The statements came in the form of a study confirming something the trucking industry has said for years in its battle with rail-funded lobby groups, such as CRASH.

“This study is the latest to confirm that professional truck drivers are the safest on the road,” says David Bradley, chief executive officer of Canadian Truck Alliance (CTA). “Unfortunately it also confirmed that motorists too often cause collisions between cars and trucks. All road users have a responsibility to make our roads safe.”

The study, called Heavy Truck Collisions 1994-1998, shows where drivers’ actions were assessed in fatal car-truck collisions, 74 per cent of personal vehicle drivers were found to have been driving improperly.

According to Bradley, provincial governments should act quickly on this latest report and require driver education courses and testing include a ‘sharing the road’ component.

He notes a federal-provincial committee of transportation officials has recently been created to look at this issue.

“This report should energize the committee to move quickly to come up with some recommendations,” says Bradley. “It seems to me that making ‘sharing the road’ knowledge and testing mandatory for first-time drivers as well as people renewing their licenses would be a low-cost, high-return safety initiative.”