KEY POINTS:
Trucks are covering greater distances on New Zealand's roads, but getting into fewer crashes, Ministry of Transport figures suggest.
Last year, trucks were involved in 74 fatal crashes. Five years earlier, in 2001, they were involved in 76 fatals, but travelled almost 500 million kilometres fewer.
The Road Transport Forum, a lobby group for trucking companies, said the statistics ran contrary to the impression created by recent news stories of trucks being involved in many crashes.
And when they did crash, it was usually the other vehicle's fault, forum chief executive officer Tony Friedlander said.
"Over 92 percent of all road accidents don't involve a truck. Of those that do, around two thirds of injury accidents between a truck and another vehicle are caused by the other vehicle," he said.
"We were very concerned at reports saying there has been a rise in accidents involving trucks. We have analysed the ministry's statistics and these tell a very positive story about heavy trucks and their drivers."
However, according to figures obtained from the Ministry of Transport by NZPA, 21 percent of fatal crashes over the last three years involved a truck. From 2000 to 2002, 19 percent of deadly crashes involved trucks, and the 9-year-low of 15 percent was in 2003.
However, on a distance-travelled basis, trucks were getting into fewer crashes and killing fewer people.
In 2006, there were 25 fatals per billion km the truck fleet travelled. Five years earlier, there were 31 per billion km.
Road transport operators put a lot of effort into making sure their trucks and drivers share the road safely, Mr Friedlander said.
"Truck operators take road safety seriously, as the statistics show. Despite this improvement, the industry is continuing to work hard to further improve its safety performance through proposing measures such as the Operator Safety Rating System which Land Transport New Zealand is now developing," he said.
- NZPA
