Large Truck Crash Rate Soars, Fatalities Drop

As more large trucks roll on U.S. roads, the  the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is taking note and recently issued key statics which, among other things, show that large truck crashes rates are escalating rapidly, yet fatalities are dropping.

Let’s go to the numbers.  According to the FMCSA, the number of large trucks registered in the U.S. increased 3 percent in 2014 to nearly 11 million from the previous year.

Large trucks (single-unit and tractor-trailers) traveled nearly 279,131 million miles in 2014 compared to 275,018 a year earlier.

In 2015, half of all commercial truck drivers operating in the U.S. were interstate drivers with a commercial driver’s license, and 15% percent were intrastate CDL drivers.

Not surprising, trucks continue to be the main mode of transportation for freight in the U.S., moving nearly three-fourths of all cargo weight moved that year. I

On the more sobering side of the stats, nearly one in eight crashes — or 476,000 out of the 6 million vehicle crashes that occurred in the U.S. in 2014, involved large trucks and buses.  That was a whopping a 22% increase from the prior year.  On the brighter side of the equation, the number of fatal crashes involving larger trucks and buses decreased almost 5 percent to 3,649 in 2014.

Category: Featured, General Update