Trucks Overrepresented in Fatal Crashes, FMCSA Says

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Trucks represent about  4% of all registered vehicles in the United States and account for 9% of total vehicle miles traveled, but they were involved in 12% of all highway fatalities, according to a federal analysis of truck-involved fatal crashes presented to the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee.

“That’s sort of the bad news,” Bill Bannister, chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s analysis division, told members of the FMCSA advisory committee meeting Feb. 11. “The good news is that since 2005, we’ve seen a 24% reduction in fatalities in crashes involving large trucks.”

The committee, composed of broad-based representatives from the truck and bus industries, law-enforcement community and public interest groups, advises FMCSA on issues that the agency seeks assistance.

The analysis also showed that Classes 7-8 trucks accounted for 81% of all truck-involved crashes, Bannister said.

The analysis was a follow-up to the November release of National Highway Traffic Safety federal truck crash data that documented a 3.7% increase in truck-involved fatalities, which rose to 3,921 people in 2012 from 3,781 the year before.

The 2012 figure marked the third increase for annual truck-involved fatalities since hitting a low point in 2009 at 3,380 deaths.