Truck-Tractor Semitrailer Rear-End Collision Into Passenger Vehicles on Interstate 44 Near Miami, Oklahoma June 26, 2009: Highway Accident Report NTSB/HAR-10/02

About 1:19 p.m. on June 26, 2009, a multivehicle accident occurred on Interstate 44 (I-44) near Miami, Oklahoma, shortly after a minor accident in the vicinity had resulted in a traffic queue. A truck driver operating a Volvo truck-tractor in combination with an empty semitrailer was traveling eastbound in the outside lane of I-44. He did not react to the queue of slowing and stopped vehicles ahead and collided with the rear of a Land Rover sport utility vehicle (SUV). As both vehicles moved forward, the Land Rover struck a Hyundai Sonata and then departed the right lane and shoulder. The Volvo continued forward, struck and overrode the Hyundai Sonata, struck and overrode a Kia Spectra, and then struck the rear of a Ford Windstar minivan. The Volvo overrode a portion of the Windstar while pushing it into the rear of a trailer being towed by a Ford F350 pickup truck. The pickup was pushed into a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV. The major safety issues identified were the accident truck driver's fatigue, the need for updated and comprehensive fatigue education materials and fatigue management programs, the significance of heavy vehicle aggressivity in collisions between dissimilar vehicles, the lack of Federal requirements for heavy commercial vehicle event data recorders and video event recorders, and the lack of Federal requirements for forward collision warning systems.