Pickup truck use in the National Personal Transportation Survey

To guide interventions to prevent injuries to pickup-truck occupants, we ch aracterized pickup truck ownership, drivers and use in the 1995 National Pe rsonal Transportation Survey, which collects travel data from the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the US. SUDAAN software was used to acco unt for the complex nature of the sample. Pickup truck ownership was more c ommon in households with more vehicles, in rural households, in households living in single family homes and mobile homes, and in middle-income househ olds. Among US regions, pickup truck ownership was highest among households in the mountain west. Pickup truck ownership was greater in households wit h two adults, whether or not children or youths were present, but this was largely due to the number of vehicles in these households. Driving a pickup on the sample day was more frequent among men, among drivers with less edu cation and among full-time workers. A higher proportion of trips to work, w ork-related trips, longer trips and trips with fewer people were by pickup truck. Seat belt use was lower among pickup truck drivers than drivers of o ther vehicles. For only 0.5% of households (those with three or more member s and a pickup truck as their only vehicle), restrictions on travel in carg o areas might be burdensome. Restrictions on cargo area travel, strengtheni ng existing seat belt laws and social marketing strategies might increase t he safety of pickup truck occupants. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rig hts reserved.