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Hazardous materials involvement

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Hazardous materials involvement describes whether a vehicle carried hazardous materials, rather than whether its cargo escaped. In the national NHTSA FARS fatal-crash data presented here, 2024 recorded 131 large trucks carrying hazardous materials and 47 large trucks with hazardous cargo released. These are vehicle counts for the United States, covering the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The 2024 figures come from the FARS Annual Report File. They describe large trucks in fatal crashes, not the number of crashes, people killed or all hazardous materials transportation incidents.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Contents

Official definition

The FARS Analytical User's Manual, 1975-2024 identifies hazardous material involvement as element V26A/HM1. Its official definition concerns whether the vehicle was carrying hazardous materials, with No and Yes as the recorded choices. Operationally, the carrying-materials column selects large trucks with HAZ_INV coded Yes. Release is a separate question: element V26E/HM5 records whether hazardous cargo left the vehicle's cargo tank or compartment. That field is named HAZ_REL and allows Not Applicable, No, Yes or Not Reported. The release column selects large trucks with HAZ_REL coded Yes.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

National figures

The national illustrative figures distinguish carrying hazardous materials from releasing hazardous cargo. For 2020, the counts were 117 large trucks carrying hazardous materials and 34 large trucks with hazardous cargo released. For 2021, those measures were 153 trucks and 54 trucks, respectively. For 2022, they were 156 trucks and 47 trucks; for 2023, they were 115 trucks and 42 trucks. Each pair uses the same United States geographic scope and fatal-crash restriction.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

National figures[1][2][3][4][5]
YearLarge trucks carrying hazardous materialsLarge trucks with hazardous cargo released
202011734
202115354
202215647
202311542
202413147

United States, 50 states and the District of Columbia. Large trucks (vehicle counts) with HAZ_INV coded Yes and with HAZ_REL coded Yes. 2024 is the FARS Annual Report File.

What the term does not tell you

A Yes for hazardous materials involvement does not establish that cargo was released or that hazardous materials caused the crash. The underlying FARS elements apply to vehicles generally, but this presentation selects only large trucks. Related fields address placards, hazardous materials identification numbers and class numbers; involvement alone does not supply those details. Neither the involvement count nor the release count measures deaths. No population denominator or population rate is supplied, and these fatal-only counts cannot describe the full set of crashes involving trucks carrying hazardous materials.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

On related publications

References

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