Louisiana truck accident statistics (2020-2024)

Truck accident deaths in Louisiana by year

Truck accident deaths numbered 98 in 2020, 135 in 2021, 114 in 2022, 120 in 2023 and 94 in 2024. Their respective shares of Louisiana traffic deaths were 11.8%, 13.9%, 12.6%, 14.8% and 12.5%. The highest death count occurred in 2021; the lowest occurred in 2024. The traffic-death share was highest in 2023 and lowest in 2020.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

The 2024 count was 4 deaths lower than 2020. Louisiana's annual shares of the national large-truck death total were 2.0%, 2.3%, 1.9%, 2.2% and 1.8%, respectively. Across 2020 through 2024, the state's 561 deaths represented 2.0% of the national total of 27,553 deaths in large-truck crashes.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

2024 figures come from the FARS Annual Report File and can be revised when NHTSA publishes the final file.

Who died in Louisiana truck accidents

People in the large truck accounted for 90 Louisiana truck accident deaths, or 16.0%. People in other vehicles accounted for 402 deaths, or 71.7%, the largest share among the listed rows. The row "Pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside vehicles" recorded 69 deaths, or 12.3%.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

That quoted label denotes the FARS nonoccupant grouping: pedestrians, pedalcyclists, and other or unknown nonoccupants. Its other category can include occupants of vehicles not in transport, such as parked vehicles. It is not a literal test of being outside a vehicle.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The trucks involved

Louisiana's fatal crashes involved 547 large trucks during 2020 through 2024. Truck-tractors accounted for 321 trucks, or 58.7%, while the category single-unit and other large trucks recorded 226. Large trucks over 26,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating numbered 382, representing 69.8% of the large trucks counted.^{[1][2][3][4][5][8][7]}

The records also identified 18 large trucks as jackknifed and 10 large trucks carrying hazardous materials. Each of these figures counts trucks involved in fatal crashes, not deaths or crashes themselves. A truck accident can involve multiple large trucks, so the vehicle count and the fatal-crash count describe different units in the Louisiana data.^{[1][2][3][4][5][8][7]}

Counts are trucks, not crashes. One crash can involve more than one large truck.

Interstates and crash types

Interstate truck accident deaths numbered 191 in Louisiana, accounting for 34.0% of large-truck crash deaths during 2020 through 2024. The listed route-coded counts were 66 on I-10, 46 on I-20, 35 on I-12 and 29 on I-49.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

All traffic deaths on those routes were 261, 107, 99 and 87, respectively; those figures are distinct from the large-truck death counts. The listed routes form a route-coded subset, not a complete road network. Work-zone records separately counted 18 deaths in truck accidents, rather than trucks or crashes.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Counties with the most truck accident deaths

Among the listed rows, East Baton Rouge Parish had the highest truck accident death count, 38, with an average annual rate of 1.7 per 100,000 residents. St. Tammany Parish recorded 34 deaths and a rate of 2.5; Tangipahoa Parish recorded 29 and 4.2.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

De Soto Parish's 21 deaths corresponded to 15.5, the highest rate among the listed rows. Orleans Parish recorded 16 deaths and 0.9, the lowest listed rate. These rows are a supplied subset of counties. Counts and population-based rates measure different aspects of the deaths.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Up to 15 counties with the most deaths in the period, largest first. Rates for counties with few deaths change sharply with each death.

How Louisiana compares with the national rate

Louisiana's average annual truck accident death rate was 2.4 per 100,000 residents, compared with the national rate of 1.6. The respective death counts for 2020 through 2024 were 561 and 27,553. Louisiana's rate was higher than the national rate.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

The denominator sums annual Census Bureau population estimates across the period, rather than using only the separately reported July 1, 2024 estimate of 4,614,878. Rates do not adjust for mileage or visitors. For a reader searching for a truck accident lawyer, the distinction to retain here is between deaths counted by crash location and rates calculated using population.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Manner of collision and setting

Manner of collision describes the first harmful event. Rear-end crashes recorded 146 deaths. "Not a collision with another moving vehicle" recorded 144; it means no collision with a motor vehicle in transport, which can be stopped in traffic.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Daytime truck accident deaths numbered 315; nighttime deaths numbered 244. Urban deaths numbered 237 and rural deaths 324. Separately, crash configuration recorded 112 deaths in single-vehicle crashes, 334 in two-vehicle crashes and 115 in crashes involving three or more vehicles. Configuration and manner of collision are distinct classifications.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Truck occupant deaths by crash configuration

Among people in the large truck who died in Louisiana during 2020 through 2024, 54 died in single-vehicle crashes and 36 in multiple-vehicle crashes. These figures describe truck occupants alone. They do not represent everyone killed in a truck accident, including people in other vehicles.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

About these figures

Louisiana's FARS records cover fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes on trafficways customarily open to the public, with an occupant or nonoccupant death within 30 days. Nonfatal crashes and injuries are excluded. State and county assignments follow crash location, not where the people killed lived.^[9][6][7][8]

The 2020 through 2023 records are Final Files; 2024 uses the revisable Annual Report File. Average annual rates divide period deaths by summed annual Census Bureau estimates, Vintage 2025, and multiply by 100,000. The separate July 1, 2024 population is not that denominator; mileage and visitors are not adjustments.^[9][6][7][8]

See also

• I-10 truck accidents in Louisiana (2020-2024)
• I-12 truck accidents in Louisiana (2020-2024)
• I-20 truck accidents in Louisiana (2020-2024)
• I-49 truck accidents in Louisiana (2020-2024)

On related publications

• Louisiana car accident statistics (2020-2024) (caraccidentlawyers.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)