Study shows front crash prevention works for large trucks too

5 January 2022

Equipping large trucks with forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems could eliminate more than 2 out of 5 crashes in which a large truck rear-ends another vehicle, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests.

IIHS Director of Statistical Services Eric Teoh has examined data on crashes per vehicle mile traveled from 62 carriers operating tractor-trailers and other trucks weighing at least 33,000 pounds. He found that trucks equipped with forward collision warning had 22 percent fewer crashes and trucks with AEB had 12 percent fewer crashes than those without either technology. Forward collision warning and AEB reduced rear-end crashes — the specific type of collision they’re designed to prevent — by 44 and 41 percent, respectively