National Transportation Safety Board Highway Accident Report: Collision Between a Ford Dump Truck and Four Passenger Cars, Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, on April 11, 2003.

摘要

About 3:36 p.m. on April 11, 2003, in the Borough of Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, a 1995 Ford dump truck owned and operated by Blossom Valley Farms, Inc., was traveling southbound on Church Street, a two-lane, two-way residential street with a steep downgrade, when the driver found that he was unable to stop the truck. The truck struck four passenger cars, which were stopped at the intersection of Church and Main Streets, and pushed them into the intersection. One of the vehicles struck three pedestrians (a 9-year-old boy, a 7-year-old boy, and a 7-year-old girl), who were on the sidewalk on the west side of Church Street. The truck continued across the intersection, through a gas station parking lot, and over a set of railroad tracks before coming to rest about 300 feet south of the intersection. As a result of the collision, the driver and an 11-year-old occupant of one of the passenger cars received fatal injuries, and the three pedestrians who were struck received minor-to-serious injuries. The six remaining passenger car occupants and the truck driver were not injured. Major safety issues identified in this report include maintaining air brakes equipped with automatic slack adjusters, the knowledge and skills needed to drive air brake-equipped vehicles, and motor carrier oversight. As a result of its investigation of this accident, the Safety Board makes safety recommendations to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the 50 States and the District of Columbia, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, manufacturers and marketers of automatic slack adjusters, manufacturers of vehicles equipped with air brakes, the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), and publishers of ASE certification test study guides.