In 2000, 457,000 large trucks (gross vehicle weight rating greater than 10,000 pounds) were involved in traffic crashes in the United States; 4,930 were involved in fatal crashes.
A total of 5,211 people died (12 percent of all the traffic fatalities reported in 2000) and an additional 140,000 were injured in those crashes. In 1999, large trucks accounted for 4 percent of all registered vehicles and 8 percent of total vehicle miles traveled (2000 registered vehicle and vehicle miles traveled data not available).
In 2000, large trucks accounted for 9 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal crashes and 4 percent of all vehicles involved in injury and property-damage-only crashes. One out of eight traffic fatalities in 2000 resulted from a collision involving a large truck.
Of the fatalities that resulted from crashes involving large trucks, 78 percent were occupants of another vehicle. Only 14 percent were occupants of the truck.
Of the injuries that resulted from crashes involving large trucks, 76 percent were occupants of another vehicle.Almost 22 percent were occupants of the truck.
Large trucks were much more likely to be involved in a fatal multiple-vehicle crash (84 percent of all large trucks involved in fatal crashes, compared with 62 percent of all passenger vehicles). In 29 percent of the two-vehicle fatal crashes involving a large truck and another type of vehicle, both vehicles were impacted in the front. The truck was struck in the rear more than twice as often as the other vehicle (18 percent and 7 percent, respectively).
The intoxication rate for drivers of large trucks involved in fatal crashes in 2000 was 1 percent.
Drivers of large trucks were less likely to have a previous license suspension or revocation than were passenger car drivers (9 percent and 14 percent, respectively). Almost 30 percent of all large truck drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2000 had at least one prior speeding conviction, compared to 20 percent of the passenger car drivers involved in fatal crashes.
Overall, aviation is a remarkably safe mode of transportation. Commercial aviation, used by most Americans when they fly, experiences less than 1 fatal crash for every 1 million flights. While commercial air travel in the United States has increased dramatically over the past two decades, the accident rate has remained low. However, differences exist among the various categories of service that make up commercial aviation.
In 2000, 92 fatalities were reported in U.S. air carrier accidents. For the third consecutive year, no fatal accidents were reported for commercial chartered airlines. Overall, 54 U.S. air carrier accidents were reported in 2000.
Historically, air taxis experience a greater number of accidents than air carriers or commuter carriers. However, the number of fatalities across the categories varies greatly from year to year, because a single crash of a major airliner can result in a large number of deaths.
The overall accident rate for all three types of commercial aviation operations combined is 0.69 accidents per 100,000 flight hours. However, differences in the accident rates among the three types of operations do exist. For example, the accident rate for air carriers has historically been well below that of commuter carriers and air taxis.
Finally, although the overall accident and fatality rates for commercial aviation remain low, the continued growth forecast for U.S. aviation in the coming decade raises concern. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates that commercial aviation aircraft (excluding air taxis) flew more than 24 million hours in 2007, a 37 percent increase over 1999. Commercial aviation (excluding air taxis) experienced an average of 6 fatal accidents a year in the United States between 1994 and 1996. If the projected growth in flight hours occurs and the fatal accident rate was not reduced, aviation experts estimated that the number of fatal commercial aviation accidents could have risen to 9 per year by 2007. To address this potential danger, FAA’s “Safer Skies” program set a goal of reducing the number of fatal commercial accidents per million flight hours by 80 percent by 2007.
