ANALYSIS OF LARGE TRUCK ACCIDENTS IN JAPAN

The particularities of accidents involving large trucks (GVW of 8 tons or larger) in Japan and the future direction of applicable safety measures will be examined herein. ITARDA carries out microscopic investigation of approximately 300 accidents per year, thereby providing even more detailed data on accidents. The present study, in which the particularities of accidents involving large trucks are analyzed in terms of the relationship with their causes, is based on the traffic statistics for the year 2000 presented by ITARDA. Large trucks referred to here are deemed to be ones whose gross vehicle weight (GVW) is eight tons or more, fatalities as ones where death occurred within 24 hours of the accident, and injuries include both serious and minor ones. Accidents attributable primarily to large trucks are ones where errors on the part of large trucks take up the greater part, i.e., are caused by large trucks. Accidents attributable secondarily to large trucks are ones where errors by large trucks take up a smaller part, i.e., in which large trucks are involved. For the covering abstract see ITRD E825082.