Highest Number of Truck Fatalities Ever Reported in a Single Year: Truck Safety Coalition
Workers face the greatest risk of death on the job from motor vehicle accidents in both Illinois and Indiana. This danger is at least double the risk of any other fatality facing workers in our part of the country. For those entrusted with operating a large truck on local roadways, things have never been more dangerous.
Motor Vehicle Accident Worker Fatalities: 60% in Indiana; 40% in Illinois
Consider this: the newest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”) for Indiana on-the-job deaths warns us that 60% of all Indiana worker fatalities were due to a motor vehicle accident. Compare this to the BLS’s reported second greatest risk of death on the job for Hoosiers in 2020, which was acts of violence, causing 16% of all Indiana worker deaths.
Meanwhile, in the State of Illinois, the BLS data reveals that 40% of all Illinois worker deaths in 2020 were attributed to motor vehicle accidents with the second greatest fatality risk for on-the-job accidents in Illinois involving falls, which caused 17% of all Illinois worker deaths in the latest reporting year.
For safety agencies and advocates for workers hurt or killed on the job, concerns have remained steady that employees face an unacceptably high risk of dying on the job in a motor vehicle accident. It is infuriating that workers in our local area face such a great danger of dying in a preventable vehicular collision.
The newly released May 2022 national fatality report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) comes with even more shocking results. It serves to encourage an outcry that everyone on our roads in Illinois and Indiana must be warned of the growing danger they face from a fatal motor vehicle accident on our roadways.
- Read: National Center for Statistics and Analysis. (2022, May). Early estimates of motor vehicle traffic fatalities and fatality rate by sub-categories in 2021 (Crash•Stats Brief Statistical Summary. Report No. DOT HS 813 298). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA Report”).
Record Jump in Traffic Deaths With 52% Increase in Truck Fatalities Since 2010
As the Center for Auto Safety reports, more people died on U.S. roadways last year than in the past sixteen (16) years, with the 10.5% jump in a single year (2021 over 2020) being the largest percentage increase since federal fatality data collection began almost fifty years ago (in 1975). Everyone on our roads is at a very real risk of serious or deadly injuries sustained in a traffic collision.
However, for our workers who must take the wheel as part of their job duties, the risk is even greater. Of particular concern are those with commercial drivers’ licenses who operate large trucks for a living. Never have they had to face such a likelihood of perishing while on the job in a vehicular accident.
The Truck Safety Coalition (“TSC”) warns that the latest NHTSA Report confirms an “unfathomable 52% increase in truck fatalities” since 2010. The TSC makes it clear that this is the “HIGHEST number of truck fatalities ever….”
New NHTSA Report: Outrageous Increase in Danger of Death on the Road
More details into these dangers can be found in the latest NHTSA publication. From its data compilations, we know the following (NHTSA Report, pages 1-3):
- Some roadways are becoming more dangerous that others: rural interstates (up 15%) and urban collector/local roads (up 20%) – both a significant increase in accident fatalities;
- Speeding is getting worse: speeding as the cause of a fatal crash rose another 5%;
- There are more deadly multi-vehicle crashes (up 16%);
- Nighttime driving is deadlier (up 12%); and
- Drunk driving is still a big problem in causing fatal crashes (up 5%).
Of importance for all commercial truck drivers, fatalities involving at least one large truck (gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds) jumped 13% from 2020 to 2021, “reversing the trend seen in 2020.” NHTSA Report, page 1.
Regarding large truck fatalities, the NHTSA Report reveals (NHTSA Report, page 4):
- Truck driver fatalities jumped by 12% from 2020 to 2021.
- Fatalities among other motor vehicle drivers, as a percentage of total fatalities, increased during several months in 2021, with fatalities involving other motor vehicle passengers up 9%.
Greater Volume of Large Truck Traffic in Crossroads of America: Indiana and Illinois
As everyone living and working in Indiana and Illinois knows all too well, there is a greater volume of large commercial truck traffic here than in other parts of the country. We live in the “Crossroads of America,” since we are geographically located within a day’s drive of 80% of the continental United States and Canada.
Consequently, Indiana and Illinois roadways come with an increased likelihood of a deadly semi-truck crash simply because there are so many more large trucks rumbling along our roads and interstates.
According to the Indiana Department of Transportation, every year 724,000,000 tons of freight travels through Indiana, and this number is expected to jump 60% over the next 20 years. Illinois also has a huge amount of large truck traffic; for example, the Chicago metropolitan area alone is estimated to have 925,000,000+ tons of freight moving through its city limits every year.
These new statistics serve as a serious warning to everyone driving the roadways of Indiana and Illinois of the extreme danger of a deadly motor vehicle accident. However, the NHTSA Report is a very great concern to all workers who drive our roads as a part of their job duties, especially our large truck drivers. The new federal statistics confirm that the risk of a fatal collision involving a large truck carrying freight has never been greater here in Illinois and Indiana. The Crossroads of America are being driven at a high risk.
For more, read:
- Illinois Workers Hurt in a Car Crash While Driving for Work: Legal Rights under Illinois Law
- Indiana Workers Injured in a Motor Vehicle Accident While Driving On the Job
- Overweight or Overloaded Semi Truck Accidents: Growing Danger of Fatal Crash
- Trucking Companies Liable for Semi-Truck Crashes in Indiana and Illinois
- Road Safety Rankings for Illinois and Indiana: the Danger of a Fatal Crash in Our Part of the Country
- Fatal Truck Driver Crashes: Record-Breaking Trucker Fatalities According to New Studies.
The danger of dying in a motor vehicle accident, particularly a large truck crash in Indiana and Illinois, is statistically real and unacceptably high today. Workers, employees, and especially truckers must be aware of the risks they are facing while on the job behind the wheel, as well as others who share the roads with them. For fatal crash victims, there are state laws in place in both Indiana and Illinois to help the victim and their loved ones in finding justice. Please be careful out there!
