Truck accident statistics show a broad safety burden in the United States: large-truck crashes produced 5,936 deaths in 2022, while estimated injury and property-damage-only crashes brought the year’s total to 503,000. The figures below distinguish fatal-crash census data, probability-sample estimates, vehicle miles traveled, hazardous-material records, and workplace measures.
Key Truck Accident Statistics
The most useful national highlights include:
- In 2022, 5,279 fatal crashes involving large trucks occurred in the United States.
- In 2022, large-truck crashes killed 5,936 people in the United States, including 1,097 large-truck occupants.
- In 2022, an estimated 114,000 injury crashes involved large trucks in the United States.
- In 2022, an estimated 160,000 people were injured in large-truck crashes in the United States.
- In 2022, large trucks were involved in an estimated 503,000 total U.S. crashes.
- In 2022, an estimated 384,000 large-truck crashes were property-damage-only crashes in the United States.
- In 2022, large trucks traveled 331.3 billion miles in the United States, equal to 10.4% of all motor-vehicle miles.
- In 2022, the large-truck crash fatality rate was 1.79 deaths per 100 million large-truck miles traveled in the United States.
- In 2022, the large-truck fatal-crash rate was 1.59 per 100 million large-truck miles traveled in the United States.
- In 2022, the large-truck injury-crash rate was an estimated 34.5 per 100 million large-truck miles traveled in the United States.
- In 2022, Texas recorded 806 fatalities in large-truck and bus crashes, while California recorded 436.
- In 2022, Class 8 trucks over 33,000 pounds represented 3,843 large trucks in fatal crashes in the United States.
- In 2023, 466 large-truck hazardous-material crashes involved a cargo release in the United States.
- In 2022, truck transportation recorded 704 fatal occupational injuries in the United States.
- In 2024, truck transportation recorded 578 workplace fatalities in the United States.
- In 2024, truck transportation had 2.9 recordable injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers in the United States.
Contents
- Key Truck Accident Statistics
- Fatal Large-Truck Crash Statistics and Death Trends
- Truck Injury and Property-Damage Crash Data
- Large-Truck Crash Rates and State Comparisons
- Truck Accident Victims, Vehicle Weight, and Safety Outcomes
- Hazardous-Material Truck Crash and Cargo-Release Statistics
- Truck Transportation Workplace Accident and Injury Statistics
Fatal Large-Truck Crash Statistics and Death Trends
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics 2024 uses FARS, a fatal-crash census. For FARS and CRSS, a large truck has a gross vehicle weight rating above 10,000 pounds; a fatal crash requires a death within 30 days.
| Year | Fatal large-truck crashes | People killed | Large-truck occupants killed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 4,502 | 5,032 | 893 |
| 2020 | 4,423 | 4,945 | 822 |
| 2021 | 5,178 | 5,821 | 1,011 |
| 2022 | 5,279 | 5,936 | 1,097 |
Source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics 2024.
The 2022 total of 5,936 deaths includes everyone killed in crashes involving a large truck, not only people riding in the truck. The same year had 5,476 fatal crashes involving large trucks and buses together, compared with 39,221 fatal crashes across all vehicle types.
Over the longer period shown in the guide, fatal large-truck crashes increased from 3,554 in 2013 to 5,279 in 2022, while fatalities increased from 3,981 to 5,936. FMCSA cautions that a 2016 classification change reclassified 329 light pickups, so comparisons before and after 2016 require care.
Truck Injury and Property-Damage Crash Data
CRSS is a probability sample, so its large-truck totals are estimates rounded to the nearest 1,000. Unlike fatal-crash counts, these figures describe the wider set of injury and property-damage-only outcomes.
| Measure | 2020 estimate | 2022 estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Total large-truck crashes | 407,000 | 503,000 |
| Injury crashes | 99,000 | 114,000 |
| People injured | 142,000 | 160,000 |
| Property-damage-only crashes | 304,000 | 384,000 |
Source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics 2024.
For context, all vehicle types in 2022 had an estimated 1,665,000 injury crashes and 4,227,000 property-damage-only crashes. Large trucks and buses together accounted for an estimated 553,000 total crashes, including 124,000 injury crashes and 424,000 property-damage-only crashes, but mixed truck-bus crashes can cause subtotal double-counting.
The 2022 large-truck injury estimate includes people injured in both injury and fatal crashes, while the fatality figures above count deaths. These are different measures and should not be combined into a single accident-outcome rate.
Large-Truck Crash Rates and State Comparisons
Vehicle-miles-traveled rates add exposure context to raw counts. In 2022, large trucks traveled 331.3 billion miles, representing 10.4% of all motor-vehicle miles in the United States.
| 2022 national measure | Rate per 100 million large-truck VMT | Measurement status |
|---|---|---|
| Fatalities in large-truck crashes | 1.79 | Observed |
| Fatal crashes involving large trucks | 1.59 | Observed |
| Large-truck injury crashes | 34.5 | Estimated |
| People injured in large-truck crashes | 48.3 | Estimated |
Source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics 2024.
The fatality and fatal-crash rates use FARS counts with FHWA vehicle-miles-traveled denominators. The injury measures use CRSS estimates with the same type of exposure denominator, so observed and estimated measures should remain clearly distinguished.
State figures in the guide use total VMT rather than large-truck-only VMT. New Mexico had the highest listed 2022 large-truck fatality rate at 0.34 deaths per 100 million total VMT, and Montana’s rate was 0.30 per 100 million total VMT.
California recorded 436 fatalities in large-truck and bus crashes in 2022, while Texas recorded 806. These state totals combine large-truck and bus crashes and therefore are not directly equivalent to the national large-truck-only totals.
Truck Accident Victims, Vehicle Weight, and Safety Outcomes
Vehicle involvement tables describe large trucks represented in fatal crashes, not unique crashes or fatalities. In 2022, the weight-rating table represented 5,837 large trucks.
- Class 8 trucks weighing more than 33,000 pounds accounted for 3,843 large trucks in fatal crashes.
- Class 3 trucks weighing 10,001–14,000 pounds accounted for 909 large trucks in fatal crashes.
- Class 6 trucks weighing 19,501–26,000 pounds accounted for 406 large trucks in fatal crashes.
Source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics 2024.
Historical single-unit-truck findings add a separate perspective on measurement and victim exposure. The National Transportation Safety Board found approximately 20% undercounting of single-unit-truck fatalities because of misclassification in the federal and state databases examined; this is a study finding from 2013, not a current annual national rate.
In the NTSB study population, single-unit trucks made up 3% of registered motor vehicles and 4% of vehicle miles traveled, yet were involved in 9% of passenger-vehicle-occupant fatalities in multivehicle crashes. Those percentages concern the historical study population and passenger-vehicle occupants, not all truck-crash deaths today.
Hazardous-Material Truck Crash and Cargo-Release Statistics
MCMIS records cover large-truck crashes involving hazardous-material placards; MCMIS also includes placarded hazardous-material vehicles regardless of weight. The following records were reported through December 31, 2023, and were preliminary for 22 months at publication.
| Measure | Period | Count |
|---|---|---|
| HM-placarded large-truck crashes | 2019–2023 records through 2023-12-31 | 2,926 |
| Large-truck HM cargo releases | 2023 | 466 |
| Flammable-liquid releases | 2023 | 247 |
| Gas releases | 2023 | 61 |
| Large-truck HM cargo releases | 2022 | 555 |
| Large-truck HM cargo releases | 2019 | 630 |
Source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics 2024.
The release categories are cargo-release records, not a complete measure of all hazardous-material crashes or the severity of environmental, property, or health outcomes. Their preliminary status also means the latest records may be revised.
Truck Transportation Workplace Accident and Injury Statistics
Workplace measures cover work-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in an industry; they are broader than roadway truck crashes alone. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 704 fatal occupational injuries in truck transportation in 2022, while transportation and warehousing recorded 1,053 fatal occupational injuries that year.
In 2023, transportation incidents represented 71.7% of transportation-and-warehousing fatalities, or 667 deaths. Within that industry-wide category, roadway collisions with another vehicle accounted for 249 fatalities and roadway collisions with an object other than a vehicle accounted for 193; neither category is limited to truck-only crashes.
Sources: BLS, Keeping America Moving: Employment in Transportation and Warehousing Industries and BLS, Truck Transportation: NAICS 484.
The BLS NAICS 484 series reported 626 workplace fatalities in 2023 and 578 in 2024. The series has a NAICS 2022 break beginning in 2023, so those values should not be treated as a seamless continuation of earlier classifications.
For 2024, truck transportation recorded 2.9 total recordable injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers, including 2.2 cases involving days away, restriction, or transfer, 1.6 cases involving days away from work, and 0.7 cases involving job transfer or restriction.
Finally, the Large Truck Crash Causation Study created a database of 1,000 serious large-truck crashes with more than 1,000 data elements per crash. The study was conducted in the 2001–2003-era and published in 2007, so it is historical research on serious crashes rather than an annual census of current truck accidents.
Source: NHTSA, Large Truck Crash Causation Study in the United States.