@Rusty Traque posted:Truck brakes aren't perfect. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, brake failures are the number one reason for crashes, making up 29% of all large truck crashes.
Rusty
First, that study used data from about 900 crashes and extrapolated that to the estimated 140,000 commercial trucks that were involved in an accident over the same period.
Second, brakes are NOT the number one reason, they're the number one associated factor.
The number one cause is the driver, representing 87% of all crashes. Vehicle issues are about 10% of all causes, with brake failures representing some fraction of that.
For example, if the driver rides the brake pedal down a long steep grade and melts the brake shoes off, you can hardly blame the air brake design for that.