The number of people killed in traffic crashes involving large trucks increased by 2% from 2021 to 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s final 2022 Fatality Analysis Reporting System data released this week. NHTSA defines “large trucks” as commercial and non-commercial trucks with GVWRs of over 10,000 pounds for the purposes of this report.
The number of people killed and injured in crashes involving large trucks increased in 2022, as shown in this chart.NHTSA
Overall, there were 716 fewer people killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes on U.S. roadways during 2022, a 1.7% decrease from 43,230 in 2021 to 42,514 in 2022. The fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) decreased by 3.6% from 1.38 in 2021 to 1.33 in 2022.
For large truck-involved crashes, however, NHTSA reported that 5,936 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks in 2022, up from 5,821 in 2021. The number of large-truck occupants that were killed in crashes in 2022 increased by 8.5% to 1,097 fatalities.
Other vehicle occupants killed in crashes with large trucks decreased slightly (0.2%) to 4,167. Fatalities for non-occupants (motorcyclists, pedestrians, pedalcyclists and others) increased by 6% from 2021 to a total of 672.
The number of people injured in large truck-involved crashes also increased by 5,795 year-over-year -- a 3.7% increase -- to 160,608. There were 41,874 large-truck occupants injured in crashes (down 0.7% from 2021) and 118,735 other vehicle occupants and non-occupants injured (up 5.4% from 2021).
[Related: Reasons for the rise in truck occupant crash deaths]
