The NCSA (National Center for Statistical Analysis) compiled statistics on large truck accidents in the United States for 2003. The study found that there were almost five thousand truck accidents in 2003 that resulted in a fatality. The study also found that 68% of these accidents occurred in rural areas. This goes against the common assumption that congested areas experience more truck accidents.
The study found that 78% of the truck accidents happened on weekdays, and 66% occurred during daylight hours. While it might seem that daylight driving is safer than nighttime, the high percentage may be due to the fact that there are more cars on the road with the trucks.
There are many reasons for truck accidents, including driver impairment. In this study they found that only 1% of the fatal accidents were due to DUI. Instead, a higher accident rate was found among those truck drivers who had been convicted for speeding in the past. This study found that 27% of the truck drivers involved in the accident had a least one earlier speeding conviction.
In this study on 2003 truck accidents, these were the five states with the highest amount truck accident fatalities:
State Fatalities
Texas 438
Florida 343
California 332
Pennsylvania 213
Georgia 208
The statistics for the previous year also had these as the top states.
It is difficult to analyze these numbers and determine why these states are on the top of the list. This is especially true since the study also found the largest percentage of accidents involved truck drivers with speeding convictions. However, that was still only 27%, meaning almost three-thirds of the fatal accidents had other causes.
These remaining truck accidents could have happened for any of the other usual causes. Many may be due to badly constructed roads. This cause might explain why the same states occupy the top spots in successive years. There are numerous roads around the country which are notorious for accidents, including truck collisions.
Another cause could be bad weather. While often winter weather is thought to be more dangerous, only one of these five states, Pennsylvania, and northern California are areas that have significant annual snowfall. The other three states and southern California are generally warm weather states. They do experience bad rain storms including hurricanes so it is possible some of these fatal truck accidents are weather related.
One other reason is unsafe driver. Often in accidents involving large trucks and cars it is the driver of the smaller vehicle who committed the action that caused the accidents. Some car drivers do dangerous maneuvers near truck drivers which result in fatal accidents. They drive too close to trucks, sometimes pulling into their lane without sufficient headway. Some move into the space to the right of a truck when it is making a wide right turn. Often these drivers believe that they have the skill to get by the slower moving truck.
While these individual state fatality numbers for 2003 may not seem high, there are more than one hundred thousand injuries due to truck accidents each year. This illustrates the very real danger of truck accidents in the US.
This article is not intended for legal advice.
Further Legal Reading: For additional truck accident statistics visit TruckAccidentLaw.org. Serving clients in South Florida.