New Report Outlines Actions to Reduce Collisions with Commercial Garbage Trucks

A recent study, developed through the joint efforts New York City's Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), Business Integrity Commission’s (BIC), and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, outlines safety measures that private waste carting companies should adopt to reduce collisions, injuries, and deaths.

The study includes an initial analysis of vehicle design factors and safety technologies that could potentially reduce or mitigate serious crashes involving BIC licensees and registrants; identify preliminary best practices that may be implemented by BIC; and propose priorities for potential future analysis as more comprehensive crash data is collected.

3 Key Findings

Finding #1: Change Cab Design

Of the 43 reported fatal crashes involving BIC regulated vehicles from 2010 to 2019, at least ten were found to be start-from-stop visibility-related crashes. All ten of these crashes involved conventional cab vehicles, while none involved a cabover truck. Fleets should improve the driver’s direct vision, in particular forward visibility of vulnerable road users. In the short-term, fleets should look at prohibiting certain aftermarket direct vision obstructions. In the long term, fleets should replace conventional truck cabs with cab-over-engine trucks.

Finding #2: Install Side Underride Guards

Fatal and injury crashes involving a truck without side guards were fatal 25 percent of the time, such crashes involving a side guard-equipped truck were fatal 15 percent of the time. While confounding factors could not be accounted for with currently available data, this is consistent with 40 percent reduction in the fatality rate on side guard-equipped trucks.

Finding #3: Invest in Technologies

Surround cameras, safety lights, and pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems look to be the most promising crash-reduction technologies for trade waste vehicles based on the data studied. Other strategies whose potential applicability could not be screened using the methodology, but which are likely to have high safety value across all crash types, include telematics and driver training.

To read the full report, please click here.