DAYTON, Ohio — According to an analysis by John Fitch, an Ohio-based personal injury lawyer, Nebraska ranks No. 1 for the most dangerous state for drivers of large trucks.
Fitch conducted his analysis using recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of fatal crashes in each state during 2021. The NHTSA defines any commercial or non-commercial vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating greater than 10,000 pounds as a large truck, excluding buses and motor homes.
Nebraska leads the way as the most dangerous state for large truck drivers, with 16.1% of vehicles involved in fatal crashes in the state being large trucks. The total number of fatal traffic crashes involving a large truck in 2021 was 50 out of a total 311 fatal traffic crashes.
Iowa is the second most dangerous state for large truck drivers; 15.5% of vehicles involved in fatal crashes were large trucks. The total number of fatal truck crashes was 76 out of 491 total fatal vehicle crashes.
In third place is Kansas. The Sunflower State had 14.4% of all fatal crashes involving a large truck. There were a total of 87 large trucks involved in fatal crashes in 2021.
In fourth place, is Wyoming, where 14.1% of all fatal crashes in 2021 involved a large truck. The total number of fatal crashes involving a truck was 20, the lowest of the top 10 states.
With a total percentage of 13.8% of crashes involving a large truck, New Mexico is in fifth place. There were 89 fatal crashes involving a large truck in the state.
In sixth and seventh place, are Utah and Indiana with rates of 13.3% and 13.2% respectively. Although not much separates the two states in terms of percentage, Utah had 63 fatal crashes involving large trucks, while Indiana had 184.
Texas is in eighth place, with 12.8% of all vehicles involved in fatal crashes being trucks. Texas also had the highest total amount of large trucks involved in fatal crashes compared to any other state, with 832.
In ninth and tenth place are Idaho and Arkansas with 12.5% and 12.2% respectively. Idaho had 47 total large trucks involved in a fatal traffic crash, while Arkansas had 117.
At the other end of the scale, Rhode Island is the safest place for truck drivers, with just three large trucks involved in a fatal crash during 2021, which amounted to just 3.2% of all fatal crashes in the state.
“During the time period measured, there were a total of 5,699 fatal crashes involving trucks across the U.S., which amounts to 9.3% of the overall number of 61,265 deadly crashes,” noted a spokesperson for Fitch. “The states in the top 10 all have considerably higher rates of crashes than the national average. It’s important for drivers to be aware of the risks at all times, and particularly in these states.”
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Commercial trucks are at leased 26000 pick ups are 10000 pounds. Those numbers are over estimated if you count the wrecks with pick up trucks of 10000 Rv and campers with it
In other words these numbers make it sound if all big trucks are bad when it is highly possible that Nevada qua heavy trucks maybe the safest state is.
clearly John Fitch never drive in Wisconsin
go back 20 year’s and look at the numbers and %’s big deference because then we knew how to drive a tractor trailer truck now you have people who don’t have the ability to do this in a professional manner all they are are steering wheel holders monumental deference take this from a man who did it for 47plus years without an accident and more than 3mil miles no luck just A PROFESSIONAL
I would have to agree with IN and new Mexico. I have seen more bad on I 70 and 65 N and in NM there’s a lot of crashes on I 40. they have some trouble with grain trucks in the ag states but they have been cracking down. I ve seen more bad on i 85 and 75 down south even on a clear summer sunday,and that’s the truth.
Jim Subrick,
Your absolutely right. There needs to be a higher standard of training and testing across all states before anyone can obtain a professional drivers license. That would lead of course to better paid drivers and less driver churn in the industry thus making the roads safer. Unfortunately this kind of logic is lost on governments as politicians would face a severe backlash from industry due to driver shortages. But with the economy down this would be a perfect time to implement changes and weed out the bad drivers. Basically, if you get rid of bad drivers and reward the good drivers with better pay more drivers will stay in the industry and more drivers will want to enter the industry but training standards should be held high to maintain safety on the roads. Professional drivers know that there’s a lot of bad drivers out there wether it’s teenagers, recent immigrants, elderly boomers, and four wheelers as well as truck drivers and they are always anticipating the possible scenarios and solutions they may encounter on the road and react appropriately.
ALL THEY ARE GOING TO SAY IS…..”Driver Error…”….lets get rid of drivers and AI will be just fine”….those pests complaining drivers how dare they take a sip of their coffee cups ,,,,how dare they want to speak their family…..on our time….
I SAY lets pay driver hourly and you will see better performance and less demand of drive fast….Make AI to help drivers so when eyes are dropping it can take over…..with out a driver being reprimanded….this the most unhealthiest job and demanding taxing on the mind
The data for large, trucks rated at 26.000 pounds and data for 4 wheel pick-up’s rated at 10,000 pounds need to be separated. You CAN NOT LUMP the two weight rated classes together. You must have a CDL for 26,000 and only a operators license for 10,000. It makes professional drivers and the trucking industry appear worse than it is. WHAT BS!!