Center for National Truck and Bus Statistics-CNTBS

The Center for National Truck and Bus Statistics was established in 1988 to formalize the national program to collect and analyze truck accident data, which had begun with the 1980 data year. Since then the program has expanded to include a survey of bus crashes.

Sponsors

Since its inception, the Center for National Truck and Bus Statistics has been jointly supported by government, industry, and private sponsors. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration provides critical support for the TIFA and BIFA projects, as well as a series of other projects to support the FMCSA’s mission to promote the safety of trucks and buses on our Nation’s highways.

Other projects have been supported by Sandia National Laboratories, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and the Federal Highway Administration. Private organizations include the American Trucking Associations, the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association, TRW Automotive, the National Truck Equipment Association, the Electronic Stability Coalition and certain major truck manufacturers.

The Center's major projects include:

• Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents (TIFA) survey
  CNTBS has conducted an annual national survey on fatal traffic accidents involving medium and heavy trucks since 1980. The resulting data file contains variables collected from the survey as well as Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data for those cases. While the FARS file provides much information on the accident environment and events, the TIFA survey collects details about the physical configuration of the truck.

• Buses Involved in Fatal Accidents (BIFA) survey
  Patterned after the TIFA project, a similar survey for buses was begun in 1999, producing the Buses Involved in Fatal Accidents (BIFA) file. Since the BIFA survey is tailored specifically to buses, in-depth descriptions of the bus and the carrier that operated it are obtained and added to the FARS variables.

• Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) project
  All states are required to report crashes involving a truck or bus, with a defined severity criteria, to the MCMIS Crash file, maintained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). For this project, CNTBS assesses the accuracy and completeness of the MCMIS file on a state-by-state basis.

• Project for Sandia National Laboratories to Geolocate Fatal Truck Crashes
  The CNTBS has been working on a study to determine the precise locations of fatal truck crashes. The study is supported by Sandia National Laboratories as part of their efforts to enhance the safety of hazardous material shipment by the U.S. Department of Energy.