The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors announced last Tuesday that “America’s Dangerous Trucks,” an investigative documentary by ProPublica and FRONTLINE, was nominated for a Peabody Award in the public service category. The honor celebrates compelling and empowering storytelling in broadcast and streaming media.

An average of about 5,000 people a year are killed in crashes involving large trucks, a death toll that has soared by almost 50% since 2011, according to the most recent federal data. Tens of thousands more have been injured. Drawing on more than a year of reporting — including leaked documents and interviews with former government insiders, trucking industry representatives and families of crash victims — “America’s Dangerous Trucks” reveals how, for decades, federal regulators proposed new rules to try to prevent underride crashes, where a car slides beneath the trailer of a big truck. But over and over, pushback from trucking industry lobbyists won the day, leaving drivers of smaller vehicles vulnerable.

A collaborative reporting team from ProPublica and FRONTLINE produced an hourlong documentary, while ProPublica reporters complemented the documentary by producing multiple deep-dive text stories. Over the span of a year, they followed the story from coast to coast, filming in Indiana; Washington, D.C.; Ohio; Virginia; New Mexico; Texas; North Carolina; Oregon; New York; and Maryland. Reporters talked to truckers, industry lobbyists, crash researchers and grieving families. The team also met with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has tried to rally support for stronger regulations to prevent underride crashes, and with former officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The winners of the 84th annual Peabody Awards will be announced on May 9. See a list of all the nominees.