A state-by-state breakdown of crashes involving large trucks
In 2020, there were 54,272 fatal crashes reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Many of these crashes involved passenger vehicles—sedans, SUVs, or relatively small trucks; however, thousands of fatal crashes involved another type of vehicle: large trucks. In fact, large trucks—commercial and non-commercial trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds—were involved in almost 5,000 fatal crashes, or just under 9% of total fatal crashes, in 2020. Although the large truck category begins at 10,000 pounds, the majority of trucks involved in these crashes weighed more than 26,000 pounds.
And while that number may seem like a lot, it actually represents a 1% decline from the prior year. One potential reason for the decrease in fatal crashes involving large trucks is the pandemic, which caused a shift in the supply chain and consumer demand that may have put fewer large commercial trucks on the road.
But do certain states have more fatal large truck crashes than others? Walkup, Melodia, Kelly, & Schoenberger collected data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatal Analysis Reporting System to understand how many accidents in each state involved large trucks. Each state was ranked based on the number of accidents involving large trucks per 100,000 residents, using data from the FARS April 2020 Traffic Safety Facts report. Population size was drawn from U.S. Census state population totals. Click through for a look at how many crashes involving large trucks happened in each state in 2020.
