Report: Trucking Fatalities Jumped 17 Percent in 2021

Fatalities and injuries involving Class 3 to Class 8 vehicles were up in 2021 ... way up.

A report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on traffic fatalities and injuries in 2021 — the most recent data available — showed that 5,788 people died in wrecks involving vehicles with gross weight-ratings over 10,000 pounds.

That’s 843 more fatalities than in 2020, according to the April 3 report.

Not surprisingly, most of those killed in these crashes were in other vehicles (4,139), while a further 631 victims were not in any vehicle. All these numbers represent a notable increase from 2020 truck-related fatalities.

Reported injuries involving trucks also rose in nearly every category in 2021, with 154,993 injuries logged, a 9.4 percent spike over 2020’s injury total of 141,613. As with trucking fatality figures, most of these injuries were reported by occupants of other vehicles (109,981), with another 2,848 injured outside of any vehicle.

The only decrease in the stats was for single-vehicle truck crashes, which dropped 7.7 percent to 13,823. However, this was partially offset by a 6.6 percent increase in trucking-related injuries involving multiple vehicles, which hit 28,341 in 2021.

Overall, NHTSA reported 42,939 traffic fatalities of any stripe in 2021, a 10 percent increase from the previous year and the highest number since 2005. Total traffic injuries were reported as 2.5 million, a 9.4 percent increase over 2020 figures.

Data for the report was culled from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the Crash Report Sampling System, NHTSA said.