Recently released data points to increased medium- and heavy-duty commercial motor vehicle accidents and fatalities that have safety organizations outraged.
“The carnage on our roadways is deeply disturbing. These crashes won’t go away on their own, we need our public officials to show courage and put the needs of the public above the interests of large trucking companies,” Russ Swift, a Parents Against Tired Truckers board member, reportedly stated.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published its 2022 findings that indicate a 2-percent rise in fatal collisions involving vehicles over 10,000 pounds. In 2021, there were an estimated 5,821 deaths. The final tally for 2022 shows that number rose to 5,936. According to the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA), large trucks and buses involved in collisions accounted for 3,619 fatalities in 2009.
The information released by the NHTSA also pointed to a spike in truck-related injuries. There were 160,608 in 2022, a 3.7 percent increase from 2021. Adding to the disappointing figures, the NHTSA noted a 9 percent increase from 2020 to 2021. Factored together, the country experienced a 12.7 percent increase in truck collision-related incidents from 2022 through 2022. These are other sub-categories reflected in the data.
- Large-truck occupant fatalities in single-vehicle crashes increased by 29, a 5.0-percent increase from
- 2021.
- Large-truck occupant fatalities in multi-vehicle crashes increased by 57, a 13-percent increase from 2021.
- Nonoccupants killed increased by 38, a 6.0-percent increase from 2021.
- Large-truck occupants injured in single-vehicle crashes increased by 3,338, a 24-percent increase from
- 2021.
- Occupants of other vehicles who were injured increased by 5,406, a 4.9-percent increase from 2021.
- Nonoccupants injured increased by 685, a 24-percent increase from 2021.
It’s also important to note that large truck occupants experienced an 8.5 percent rise in fatalities between 2021 and 2022. The Truck Safety Coalition (TSC) expressed its disappointment and outrage.
“Shockingly, amid this truck crash fatality crisis, FMCSA is proposing to roll back safety standards under the guise of flexibility for carriers. The proposed changes have a clear negative impact on safety, which the agency fails to even attempt to assess in its analysis,” according to a TSC statement.
If there’s any silver lining to highway safety, the NHTSA estimates the number of fatalities involving large trucks appears to be in decline. Its 2023 calculations point to a decrease of approximately 3.6 percent. With a crash fatality rate of 1.26 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, 2023 would have the fewest since 2019.
Source:
https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813560
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/nhtsa-reports-fatality-injury-uptick-in-latest-truck-crash-stats
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