FACT SHEET

Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT)

July 2009

• Between 2005 and 2007, commercial vehicles were involved in 4,820 collisions in Washington State.  Commercial vehicle/car collisions caused the deaths of 175 people and another 450 people were injured.

• Nationally during those same years, 999 people were killed in collisions involving at least one large truck and 47,456 people were injured.  During the same period, 441,788 commercial vehicles were involved in collisions.

• The Washington State TACT program is based on the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) – a Canadian intervention model that combines intensive enforcement of a specific traffic safety law with extensive communication, education, and outreach to inform the public about the enforcement activity.

• The Washington State TACT projects targets the unsafe behavior of “cutting off” trucks.  Other unsafe driving behaviors include unsafe lane changes, tailgating, failure to signal lane changes, failure to yield the right-of-way, and speeding.

• The purpose of TACT is to change driver behavior when driving around commercial vehicles, reduce the number of fatal and serious injury crashes, and increase public awareness about unsafe driving behaviors around commercial vehicles.

• In 2008, 60% of all commercial vehicle involved fatal collisions occurred on rural highways.  Passenger vehicles were the cause of 75% of those fatalities.

• The 2009 Washington State Patrol TACT project will combine enforcement and education on SR-8 in Grays Harbor County and on SR-2 north of Spokane.