While it is true that compared to automobile drivers, truck drivers are generally much more careful, massive trucks still account to thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries each year as per the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Here’s a quick look at the statistics in numbers:
- 700 truck drivers including their passengers are killed every year.
- 68% of all truck collisions that are fatal happen in rural regions and not in cities.
- More than 50% of these deadly truck crashes occur in broad daylight, and roughly 80% happen during weekends.
- Surprisingly, 71% of these truck accidents happen when roads are dry and the weather is clear.
- Every year, 5,000 individuals in passenger vehicles die in crashes involving semi-trucks. While around 700 people in semi-trucks die in these crashes yearly.
- About 64% of semi-truck accidents that are fatal involve a semi-truck that’s towing a trailer. 32% of these crashes include single-unit trucks.
- Multi-trailer vehicles account to 4% of these accidents.
- According to a 2014 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 11,000 individuals were injured while 3,900 died due to bus or big truck (18-wheelers, coal trucks, cement trucks, etc.) collisions.
- The death of passengers in a motor vehicle was a staggering 68%, while 15% were pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
Large trucks are classified by the Federal Motor Carrier Standards Act as vehicles with a gross weight rating exceeding 10,000 pounds. 15-passenger vans were defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as large trucks. The NHTSA has issued several notices to groups who use this type of vehicles concerning the risks of putting drivers with little experience behind its wheel as well as loading the vans entirely with passengers and cargo. Fatal multi-vehicle crashes are most likely to occur with a large truck involved than passenger vehicles. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 98% of the deaths in accidents involving other vehicles and big trucks are those individuals in passenger vehicles.
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As per the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or FMCSA, in 2014, tractor-trailers were involved in 72% of these truck accidents that resulted in fatalities. There are more than 15 million trucks hitting the road every year, and out of that number were 2 million tractor-trailers which makes it one of the most dangerous vehicles out there. Furthermore, more than 25% of all deadly tractor-trailer crashes are caused by those truck drivers who have had a previous speeding penalty before the fatal event.
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