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2002 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 23
Requesting the Crash Investigation Team of Virginia Commonwealth University's Transportation Safety Training Center and the Virginia Transportation Research Council to study ways to reduce the number and severity of highway accidents involving trucks and other large vehicles stopped on the roadway or shoulder.

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 12, 2002
Agreed to by the Senate, March 5, 2002

WHEREAS, year after year, motor vehicle crash statistics for Virginia and other states as well, show that an alarming number of crashes occur when drivers of other vehicles on the highway mistake trucks and other large vehicles that are stopped either on the roadway or on the shoulder of the highway for moving vehicles and collide with them, sometimes at considerable speed, and often with tragic consequences; and

WHEREAS, if it could be determined what spatial perception factors, physiological elements, and psychological ingredients combine to cause or materially contribute to this dangerous and often deadly misperception, many lives and even more injuries could be avoided and property damage reduced; and

WHEREAS, two entities in Virginia, the Crash Investigation Team of Virginia Commonwealth University's Transportation Safety Training Center and the Virginia Transportation Research Council have years of experience and a wealth of training and skills that may be able to afford valuable insights into how and why crashes of this type happen and make useful and practical recommendations as to how their number and severity may be reduced; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the Crash Investigation Team of Virginia Commonwealth University's Transportation Safety Training Center and the Virginia Transportation Research Council be requested to study ways to reduce the number and severity of highway accidents involving trucks and other large vehicles stopped on the roadway or shoulder.

All agencies of the Commonwealth shall provide assistance to this study, upon request.

The Crash Investigation Team and the Transportation Research Council shall complete their work by November 30, 2002, and shall submit their findings and recommendations to the Governor and the 2003 Session of the General Assembly as provided in the procedures of the Division of Legislative Automated Systems for the processing of legislative documents.