GAO-NSIAD-99-82-B-282071
MILITARY SAFETY
Army M939 5-Ton Truck Accident History and Planned Modifications
APRIL 1999
GAO-NSIAD-99-82-B-282071 - Page 6 of 23
B-282071
Figure 2: Comparison of Selected
M939 Accident Statistics to Remaining
Army Motor Vehicle Fleet, 1987-1998
AMV Accidents
Fatal Accidents
Occupant Deaths
All Rollovers
Rollover Deaths
AMV Fleet
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Categories
In percent
M 939s
Remaining AMVs
Source: GAO analysis of Army Safety Center accident data.
Comparison of M939s With
Commercial, Single-Unit
Medium and Heavy Trucks
In our second analysis, we used Department of Transportation published
data for years 1987-1996 and compared the accident rate for M939s with
the rate for single-unit medium and heavy commercial trucks (which are
physically similar to M939s). According to an agency official, the
Department of Transportation defines “fatal crashes” as any event in
which someone is killed in a crash—vehicle occupant or otherwise—and
“truck occupant fatalities” as a fatality of an occupant of a single-unit
truck. These comparisons revealed that the accident rates for the M939
were substantially higher than those found for the commercial trucks.
However, Army officials point out that commercial trucks are driven
almost exclusively on paved roads; the M939 is driven on both paved and
unpaved roads.
GAO/NSIAD-99-82 Military Safety
Page 5
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