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Large-truck involvement

From TruckAccidentLawyer.wiki, a sourced reference on large-truck crashes

Large-truck involvement identifies a crash involving at least one large truck. In the national figures presented here, the scope is fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, or FARS, across the United States, covering 50 states and the District of Columbia. The operational selection is ACC_AUX A_LT = 1. For 2024, that selection includes 4,777 fatal crashes involving large trucks and 5,340 people killed in those crashes. These are separate crash and death measures from the 2024 FARS Annual Report File, rather than counts of trucks.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Contents

Official definition

The FARS Auxiliary Datasets Analytical User's Manual defines the crash element A_LT, Involving a Large Truck, with code 1 for Large Truck Involved Crash and code 2 for Other Crash. The element classifies each fatal crash in the auxiliary accident file. A large truck is a medium or heavy truck with a gross vehicle weight rating greater than 10,000 lb, excluding buses and motor homes. This official classification supplies the basis for the operational selection; the national figures illustrate the selected crashes and deaths within them.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

National figures

Within the supplied national series, 2022 has the highest fatal-crash count involving large trucks, 5,311 crashes, and the highest count of people killed in those crashes, 5,969 deaths. In 2023, the corresponding measures are 4,902 crashes and 5,478 deaths. Each death count includes all people killed in the selected crashes, including occupants of other vehicles and pedestrians. The supplied national context states that 70 percent of people killed in crashes involving large trucks in 2024 were occupants of other vehicles. That percentage describes people killed, not the share of crashes.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

National figures[1][2][3][4][5]
YearFatal crashes involving large trucksPeople killed in crashes involving large trucks
20204,4234,945
20215,1785,821
20225,3115,969
20234,9025,478
20244,7775,340

United States, 50 states and the District of Columbia. Fatal crashes with ACC_AUX A_LT = 1 and deaths in them. 2024 is the FARS Annual Report File.

What the term does not tell you

A_LT records involvement, so its classification does not establish which driver or vehicle caused a crash. A fatal crash involving a large truck can contribute several deaths to the death count while remaining a single crash in the crash count. The figures therefore do not describe only truck occupants or count the large trucks involved. The figures exclude crashes without a death because the selection includes only fatal crashes. No population rate is supplied.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

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 "FARS Auxiliary Datasets Analytical User's Manual, 1982-2019 (DOT HS 813 071)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  7. 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
  8. abcd "Large trucks: 2024 data (DOT HS 813 816, June 2026)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  9. 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