A descriptive analysis of light vehicle-heavy vehicle interactions using in situ driving data

Two recently completed on-road in situ (naturalistic) data collection efforts provided a large data set in which to conduct an examination of crashes, near-crashes, and crash-relevant conflicts (referred to as critical incidents throughout this paper) that occurred between light vehicles (LV) and heavy vehicles (HV). Video and non-video data collected during the two studies were used to characterize critical incidents that were recorded between LV and HV drivers. Across both studies, 210 LV-HV critical incidents were recorded. Of these, 78% were initiated by LV drivers, while the remaining 22% were initiated by HV drivers. Aggressive driving, on the part of the LV driver, was found to be the primary Contributing Factor for LV driver-initiated incidents. For HV driver-initiated incidents, the primary Contributing Factor was poor driving techniques. These results suggest that future efforts at addressing LV-HV interaction incidents should include focusing on aggressive LV drivers. Additionally, it is recommended that HV drivers might benefit from improved driver training that includes instruction on defensive driving skills. The in situ methodology provides an alternative to traditional crash databases, developed from police accident reports, for studying crash causation and driver behavior.