As a driver, focusing on road safety is essential. Every year, accidents on the road leave victims with debilitating injuries, and some prove fatal. Collisions involving large trucks have an especially high chance of leading to serious injuries or resulting in the loss of life. Therefore, it is particularly important to go over the characteristics of large truck accidents and develop a better understanding of this serious issue.
Large truck accidents happen for a wide variety of reasons, and analyzing data on these accidents can help drivers avoid a crash.
Rural roads and truck crashes
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published data on large truck collisions. During 2020, over 4,400 fatal large truck accidents occurred and 101,000 resulted in injuries. Statistics show that 54% of deadly large truck accidents happened on rural roads, while 27% took place on interstate highways. Work zones also saw many large truck accidents during 2020, and these collisions accounted for 15% of work zone injury accidents and 26% of deadly work zone accidents.
Many truck accidents occur on weekdays
The FMCSA reports that 24% of large truck injury accidents and 37% of fatal large truck collisions happened between 6 PM and 6 AM in 2020. Moreover, most of these accidents took place on weekdays (Monday through Friday). In fact, 87% of nonfatal truck accidents and 82% of deadly large truck crashes happened during weekdays in 2020.
Although these statistics draw attention to scenarios in which the chances of a large truck collision become particularly high, it is crucial to keep in mind that these accidents can happen at any time.