Association between Truck Crashes due to Mechanical Failure and Truck Age

Abstract

There have been efforts to restrict older trucks in many jurisdictions all over the world. The primary goal of the restrictions is to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the environmental benefits, it is also possible that the truck age restriction could contribute to the enhancement of traffic safety. Older trucks are subject to longer travel-miles than newer trucks and tend to have higher mechanical failure rates. Extremely few studies have been done to explore the impact of trucks' age on their crash occurrence due to mechanical problems. This study aims to investigate the association between the truck crashes due to mechanical issues and the truck age. Two approaches are adopted to achieve the objective. First, a chi-square test reveals that the proportions of the mechanical failures among older trucks are higher than those among newer ones (χ2 = 256.199, p<0.0001). Second, the modeling results indicate that the number of truck crashes due to mechanical failures is significantly increased by the truck age. The findings suggest that policies restricting older trucks should consider not only environmental effects but also traffic safety benefits.