Truck Accident Statistics

• Trucking is big business in the United States. Truck transportation, couriers and messengers, and warehousing and storage revenues reached $292 billion in 2005, up from $266 billion in 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Truck transportation alone reached $206 billion in 2005, up 11.0 percent. Couriers and messengers revenues grew 6.7 percent to $66 billion.
• The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) classifies a truck as large if its gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) exceeds 10,000 pounds.
• From 1996 to 2006, there was a 23-percent increase in registered large trucks and a 22-percent increase in miles traveled by large trucks, according to a report released in 2008 by the FMSCA.
• Drivers of large trucks and other vehicles involved in truck crashes in 2006 were 10 times more likely to be the cause of the crash than other factors, such as weather or road conditions, according to the 2008 FMCSA report.  See Causes of Truck Accidents page.
• Of the 368,000 police-reported accidents involving large trucks in 2006, 4,321 (1 percent) resulted in at least one fatality, and 77,000 (21 percent) resulted in at least one nonfatal injury, according to the 2008 FMCSA report.
• Single-vehicle crashes made up 21 percent of all fatal crashes, 15 percent of all injury crashes, and 27 percent of all property damage only crashes involving large trucks, according to the 2008 FMCSA report.
• Just over three-fifths (62 percent) of all fatal wrecks involving large trucks occurred on rural roads, and one-fourth (25 percent) occurred on Interstate highways, according to the 2008 FMCSA report.
• Thirty-four percent of all fatal crashes and 19 percent of all property damage only crashes involving large trucks occurred at night, the FMCSA report showed.
• The vast majority of fatal collisions (85 percent) and of nonfatal collisions (89 percent) involving large trucks occurred on weekdays (Monday through Friday), the FMCSA report showed.
• As for Pennsylvania, in 2007 there were 6,624 large trucks and 1,049 buses involved in non-fatal accidents.
• There were 3,296 large trucks and 750 buses involved in injury crashes in Pennsylvania in 2007.
• In 2007, there were 4,799 injuries in crashes involving large trucks and 1,753 injuries in crashes involving buses in Pennsylvania.
• In 2007, there 194 large trucks involved in hazmat placard accidents in Pennsylvania.
• There were a reported 5,731 large truck collisions in Pennsylvania in 2006. Of those, 2,927 resulted in serious injury while 177 ended in death.