WASHINGTON — Latest preliminary data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shows a noticeable drop in large-truck crash injuries and fatalities, a positive development because the agency considers latest rules designed to stop such crashes and mitigate their effects.
Fatalities resulting from crashes involving large trucks (weighing over 10,000 kilos) fell 14.4% — from 1,175 to 1,006 — in the primary quarter of 2023 in comparison with the identical period in 2022, in keeping with the newest statistics published by FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS), dropping below the 10-year trend (see chart).
Injuries resulting from those crashes fell 1.4%, when comparing the identical periods, with large-truck crashes overall dropping 5.2%.
An identical snapshot comparing the primary quarters of 2021 to 2022 shows an opposite trend: Fatalities increased 23.8%, injuries were up 1.7% and crashes were up 4.9%.
Taken by themselves, the information suggests improvements in road safety for the trucking sector, which has seen safety diminish because it pertains to crashes.
The positive development is less impressive, nonetheless, when taking truck population into consideration. Latest operating authorities approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which might be used as a proxy for freight activity, trended upward throughout the first quarter of 2022 as carriers looked to reap the benefits of high freight rates.
But latest authorities began trending down throughout the latter half of the 12 months because the economy, and freight rates, began to slack off, as illustrated by data compiled by FreightWaves SONAR (see below).
![](https://www.freightwaves.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/20/Net-changes-in-operating-authorites-1.1.22-to-10.20.23-1200x471.jpg)
Asked to comment, Zach Cahalan, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition (TSC), which advocates on behalf of truck crash victims, identified that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is the “agency of record” for documenting large truck fatalities.
“Once they next release their estimates, TSC hopes far fewer families suffer from these horrific crashes,” he said, and that “5,700-plus large truck fatalities a 12 months can’t be tolerated.”
While recent NHTSA data has shown declining highway fatalities amongst all road users, the agency has not broken out data for big trucks since May 2022, when it revealed that crashes involving at the very least one large truck in 2021 had climbed to a “crisis level” 13%, reversing a declining trend seen in 2020.
Eliminating injuries and deaths resulting from large truck crashes is a goal of DOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy, unveiled in January 2022. A part of that strategy includes rulemakings by FMCSA to require speed limiters and automatic braking devices on heavy trucks, in addition to changes in how carrier safety fitness is set.
“Upcoming rulemakings reminiscent of speed limiters have great potential to drive this figure down substantially and we urge FMCSA to not delay,” Cahalan said.
In April, NHTSA published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to think about mandating side underride guards for trucks as a technique to prevent deaths and injuries in crashes involving cars and trucks, however the agency was criticized harshly by safety advocates for underestimating the advantages if such a requirement were to be finalized.
:
- Trucking tells FMCSA crash reporting presumes drivers guilty
- Safety groups urge NHTSA to reconsider underride guard rule
- FMCSA says insurers aren’t disclosing costs of truck crash claims
The post Latest data shows 14% decline in large-truck fatalities appeared first on FreightWaves.