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Sharma and Landge (2013) examined the frequency of truck collisions on an Indian national

highway. They showed that heavy-vehicle crashes mostly depend on the number of accesses
to each road segment, and the widths of the road lane and shoulder. They suggested that

heavy vehicle collisions could be reduced by 30% with an increase of 1m in the lane width.
In addition, widening the road shoulder by 0.25m in both directions would reduce truck

collisions by 40%. In one of the few studies on crash frequency in urban areas, Marquis and
Wang (2015) examined the temporal effect of crashes involving heavy vehicles in Manhattan,

New York. The variables used in their model include vehicles, traffic, social, economic and

environmental characteristics. They found that collisions involving heavy vehicle were less
likely to occur during night-time in high population density areas.

In terms of the injury severity of persons involved in multivehicle crashes involving at least

one heavy vehicle, Duncan et al., (1998) investigated the factors contributing to passenger car
occupant injury severity in rear-end crashes between trucks and passenger cars on divided

highways in North Carolina. They found the occupants of sedan cars were more likely to be

involved in severe injury than a wagon-type vehicle if hit by trucks. In the type of collisions
involving passenger vehicles and heavy vehicles, head-on crashes contribute to more severe

collisions compared to other type of collisions due to the different size and weight of the two
vehicle types (Zhu and Srinivasan, 2011a). On the other hand, Ouyang et al., (2002), Zhu and

Srinivasan, (2011b), and Islam (2015) found that passenger car occupants were associated

with severe injury if involved in head-on crashes involving heavy vehicles.

Chang and Mannering (1999) investigated the effect of vehicle occupancy on most severely

injured occupants in collisions involving and non-involving at least one heavy vehicle in
Washinton, DC., U.S.A. They found that drivers who were not wearing safety belts in

collisions involving heavy vehicles were twice more likely to suffer severe injuries than

drivers in collisions not involving heavy vehicles. In another study, crashes involving heavy
vehicles in dark conditions were found to be correlated with severe injuries in Wisconsin,

U.S.A. (Qin et al., 2013).

On the other hand, collisions involving heavy vehicles were more likely to contribute to
severe injury to passenger vehicle drivers at intersections in rural areas compared to urban

areas (Khorashadi et al. 2005). In another study, Lemp et al. (2011) found motorcyclists were

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