Large Trucks Fact Sheet - Sorrow to Strength 2007

LARGE TRUCK CRASH FACTS

* 5,212 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks in 2005, representing about 12-13 percent of all traffic fatalities.  Of these, 78 percent were occupants of another vehicle, 15 percent were large truck occupants, and 9 percent were non-occupants.  An additional 114,000 people were reported injured in those crashes (based on data published in 2004 Projections, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), April 21, 2005),

* The annual death toll from truck-related crashes is the equivalent of 52 major airline crashes every year, one crash every week resulting in 95 deaths.  

* Large trucks are 9 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal crashes and represent 11-13 percent of all crash fatalities despite the fact that large trucks make up only 3 percent of all registered vehicles (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), 2001-2006;  NHTSA, 2001-2005).

* The fatality rate for big combination truck (tractor-trailer) crashes in 2005 was 2.34 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (MVMT), almost double the rate for passenger vehicles (1.14 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled) (NHTSA 2005, FMCSA 2007).

* Large trucks are more likely to be involved in fatal multiple-vehicle crashes, as opposed to single-vehicle crashes, than are passenger vehicles.  Eighty-four (84) percent of all large trucks fatal crashes were multiple-vehicle collisions in 2002, compared with only 62 percent for passenger vehicles) (IIHS, 2004).

* Almost 3 times as many large trucks are involved in injury crashes than passenger vehicle per 100 MVMT (FMCSA, 2004).

* Passenger vehicle occupants die in record numbers in collisions with large trucks because of the great difference in weight between cars and large trucks.  In two-vehicle crashes involving passenger vehicles and large trucks, 98 percent of the fatalities were occupants of the passenger vehicle.  More than 1 out of every 5 occupant deaths in passenger vehicles that had multi-vehicle fatal collisions in 2002 was the result of crashes involving large trucks (IIHS, 2004).

* There is no real progress being made in dramatically reducing deaths produced by large truck crashes.  Fatalities from large truck crashes have either remained flat or have increased over the past several years.  The number of truck crash deaths in 2004 (5,235), for example, is not significantly different from the number in 1998 (5,395), and the number of fatal crashes involving big trucks in 2000, for example (4,573), is about the same as in 2005 (4,533) (NHTSA, 2005).

* Large truck crashes are seriously underreported to the federal government