Office of Operations Freight Management and Operations

Table 5-1: Transportation Fatalities by Freight Transportation Mode

Growing demand for freight transportation heightens concerns about its safety, energy consumption, and environmental consequences. Most of our current knowledge is in safety, with some in energy consumption. More information is needed to understand and fix freight-related environmental issues.

About 5,200 people died in crashes involving large trucks in 2005, although only 803 of those were large-truck occupants. Fatalities involving large trucks are about 12 percent of all highway fatalities, while trucks account for about 8 percent of highway vehicle-miles traveled (vmt). Despite a doubling of large truck travel between 1980 and 2005, the number of fatalities involving large trucks declined 13 percent over this period.

Table in Excel format | Historical data

empty Cell 1980 1990 2000 2004 2005
Total transportation fatalities (passenger and freight) NA 47,347 44,384 (R) 45,005 NA
Highway (passenger and freight) 51,091 44,599 41,945 (R) 42,836 44,443
Large truck occupants1 1,262 705 754 (R) 766 803
Others killed in crashes involving large trucks 4,709 4,567 4,528 (R) 4,469 4,409
Large truck occupants1 (percent) 2.5 1.6 1.8 1.8 1.8
Others killed in crashes involving large trucks (percent) 9.2 10.2 10.8 10.4 9.9
Railroad (passenger and freight) 1,417 1,297 937 (R) 896 892
Highway-rail crossing2 833 698 425 (R) 370 357
Railroad2,3 584 599 512 (R) 526 535
Waterborne (passenger and freight) 487 186 187 93 U
Vessel-related4 206 85 53 36 U
Freight ship 8 0 0 2 U
Tank ship 4 5 0 3 U
Tug / towboat 14 13 2 1 U
Offshore supply NA 2 3 0 U
Fishing vessel 60 47 30 14 U
Mobile offshore drilling units NA 0 0 0 U
Platform NA 1 0 0 U
Freight barge NA 0 0 1 U
Tank barge NA 0 0 0 U
Miscellaneous 56 11 6 6 U
Not vessel-related4 281 101 134 57 U
Pipeline 19 9 38 (R) 23 19
Hazardous liquid pipeline 4 3 1 5 2
Gas pipeline 15 6 37 (R) 18 17

Key: NA = not available; R = revised.

1Large trucks are defined as trucks over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, including single-unit trucks and truck tractors.
2Includes Amtrak.
3Includes train accidents and other incidents. Most fatalities involve trespassers who are included under other incidents (467 in 2005).
4Vessel-related casualties include those involving damage to vessels such as collisions or groundings. Fatalities not related to vessel casualties include deaths from falling overboard or from accidents involving onboard equipment.
5Railroad fatalities are preliminary.

Note: Caution must be exercised in comparing fatalities across modes because significantly different definitions are used.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2006, available at http://www.bts.gov/ as of September 15, 2006.

To view Excel files, you can use the Microsoft Excel Viewer.

Office of Operations