Big Rig Trucking Accident Statistics:

• Thousands of trucks are involved in fatal traffic accidents each year.
• Hundreds of pedestrians and bicyclists are killed each year in traffic accidents involving trucks.
• Tractors pulling one semi trailer are the most common truck configuration, accounting for about 60% of all trucks involved in a fatal accident.
• The number of truck drivers killed in traffic accidents increases every year.
• Texas, California, and Florida had the greatest number of truck injuries.

The fatal crash rate for semi trucks is 2.6 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. This staggering statistic is more than 50 percent greater than the rate for all vehicles on the roads.

Tractor trailers and large semi trucks (including 18 wheelers) are also more likely to get into multiple vehicle accidents. Nearly 80 percent of all large semi truck accidents involve more than one vehicle!

Since the late 1970s, 12 to 13 percent of all traffic-related fatal crashes involved a big rig truck.

Fatigue Can Play a Big Role in Semi Truck Accidents

Federal regulations allow drivers of large trucks to drive up to 16 hours a day. However, drivers under the regulations can compile 60 hours in less than five days by alternating ten hours of maximum permitted continuous driving with the minimum eight hours off duty. Surveys reveal that many drivers of big rig trucks violate the regulations on hours of service.

Studies also show that driver fatigue plays a role in big rig wrecks and that drivers are more likely to crash after many long hours of driving. (IIHS)

The Department of Transportation has recently adopted new hours-of-service rules. However, consumer groups and highway safety advocates believe the trucking industry weakened the change to a degree that still will allow fatigued truckers on the road.