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Cargo body type

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Cargo body type truck accident data describe a vehicle's cargo carrying body within NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, or FARS. The national figures here count large trucks involved in fatal crashes in the United States, covering 50 states and the District of Columbia. The selection is limited to CARGO_BT codes 1 and 3, representing Van/Enclosed Box and Flatbed. In 2024, those categories recorded 1,995 trucks and 554 trucks, respectively. These are vehicle counts, not crash counts or deaths, and the 2024 FARS Annual Report File supplies that year's figures.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Contents

Official definition

The official definition in the FARS Analytical User's Manual identifies V25 Cargo Body Type as the element describing a vehicle's primary cargo carrying capability, where applicable. The vehicle file records this element as CARGO_BT. Its classification concerns the cargo carrying body, separately from the NCSA body type classification used to identify a truck-tractor or a single-unit truck.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

For 2009 and later data, available categories include Cargo Tank, Dump, Concrete Mixer, Auto Transporter and Intermodal Container Chassis. Not Applicable is used when a vehicle has no cargo body to classify.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

National figures

The national illustrative figures apply an operational selection narrower than the official definition: large trucks coded Van/Enclosed Box or Flatbed in FARS fatal crashes. In 2020, the counts were 1,922 trucks coded Van/Enclosed Box and 527 trucks coded Flatbed. In 2023, the corresponding counts were 2,092 trucks and 652 trucks.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Among the displayed categories, Van/Enclosed Box had more trucks than Flatbed in every supplied year. That comparison concerns vehicle counts within the shown rows. It does not compare deaths, establish a population rate or describe the distribution across every cargo body category.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

National figures[1][2][3][4][5]
YearLarge trucks coded Van/Enclosed BoxLarge trucks coded Flatbed
20201,922527
20212,141641
20222,326630
20232,092652
20241,995554

United States, 50 states and the District of Columbia. Large trucks (vehicle counts) by CARGO_BT codes 1 and 3; other codes are not shown. 2024 is the FARS Annual Report File.

What the term does not tell you

A cargo body classification does not identify the goods aboard a truck or establish whether it was loaded when the crash occurred. It also carries no finding about crash cause. Other cargo body codes and unknown values are omitted from the displayed figures, so the selected categories do not represent every large truck in the fatal-crash data.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

FARS has fatal-only scope; these figures do not measure trucks involved in all crashes. No population denominator or population rate is supplied, and the 2024 figures should retain their FARS Annual Report File designation.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

On related publications

References

  1. abcdefgh "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2020 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  2. abcdefgh "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2021 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  3. abcdefgh "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2022 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  4. abcdefgh "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2023 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  5. abcdefgh "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2024 national data files (Annual Report File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  6. abcdefg "Fatality Analysis Reporting System Analytical User's Manual, 1975-2024 (DOT HS 813 794)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  7. abcdefg "Large trucks: 2024 data (DOT HS 813 816, June 2026)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  8. abcdefg "Overview of motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2024 (DOT HS 813 791, April 2026)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record