Maine truck accident statistics (2020-2024)

Truck accident deaths in Maine by year

Annual truck accident deaths were 22 in 2020, 18 in 2021, 10 in 2022, 18 in 2023 and 29 in 2024. Their respective shares of Maine traffic deaths were 13.4%, 11.8%, 5.5%, 13.3% and 16.4%. The highest death count and share occurred in 2024; the lowest occurred in 2022. Death counts tied in 2021 and 2023. The 2024 count was 7 deaths higher than 2020. Maine's shares of national large-truck deaths were 0.4%, 0.3%, 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively. Across 2020 through 2024, Maine accounted for 0.4% of the national total of 27,553 deaths. These national shares measure deaths, rather than fatal 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 Maine truck accidents

People in other vehicles accounted for 68 truck accident deaths, or 70.1%, while people in the large truck accounted for 18 deaths, or 18.6%. The row "Pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside vehicles" recorded 11 deaths, or 11.3%. That label identifies the FARS nonoccupant grouping, including pedestrians, pedalcyclists and other or unknown nonoccupants. Its other category can include occupants of parked motor vehicles, so the label is not a literal test of being outside a vehicle. People in other vehicles represented the majority of deaths.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The trucks involved

Maine's fatal truck accident records included 95 large trucks from 2020 through 2024. Truck-tractors accounted for 36 trucks, or 37.9%; the single-unit and other large trucks category contained 59 trucks. There were 57 large trucks over 26,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, representing 60.0% of the large trucks counted. Records identified 4 large trucks as jackknifed and 2 as carrying hazardous materials. Each figure here counts trucks involved in fatal crashes, rather than the crashes themselves or people killed. A crash can involve multiple large trucks. The vehicle counts therefore remain distinct from Maine's truck accident death figures.^{[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 totaled 11 in Maine during 2020 through 2024, accounting for 11.3% of large-truck crash deaths. No interstate segment met the 20-death threshold for a listed route; the table's zero entries do not replace Maine's statewide interstate total of 11 deaths. Route-specific large-truck deaths and all deaths on a route are separate measures. Interstate identification uses the recorded route classification and a parseable interstate route number, rather than complete road-network coverage. Work-zone truck accidents accounted for 4 deaths, a count of people killed.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Counties with the most truck accident deaths

Among the listed counties, York County had the highest truck accident death count, 17, with an average annual rate of 1.6 per 100,000 residents. Androscoggin County recorded 11 deaths and a rate of 1.9. Washington County had 9 deaths and the highest listed rate, 5.7. Aroostook County and Kennebec County each recorded 8 deaths, with rates of 2.4 and 1.3, respectively. Cumberland County's 7 deaths corresponded to the lowest listed rate, 0.5. These rows are a county subset; rates with few deaths are sensitive to each death.^{[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 Maine compares with the national rate

Maine's average annual truck accident death rate was 1.4 per 100,000 residents, below the national rate of 1.6. The corresponding death counts for 2020 through 2024 were 97 in Maine and 27,553 nationally. Each rate divides deaths by summed annual Census population estimates for the period, then multiplies by 100,000. Maine's separately reported 2024 population of 1,408,438 is not that denominator. Neither rate adjusts for mileage or visitors, and deaths are assigned by crash location. Readers searching for a truck accident lawyer should keep the location-based counts distinct from the population denominators used for these rates.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Manner of collision and setting

Manner of collision describes the first harmful event: angle collisions accounted for 31 deaths. "Not a collision with another moving vehicle" recorded 29 deaths and means no collision with a motor vehicle in transport; such vehicles can be stopped in traffic. Separate truck accident classifications recorded daytime deaths of 75 and nighttime deaths of 22, with 18 urban deaths and 79 rural deaths. Crash configuration separately recorded 25 deaths in single-vehicle crashes, 58 in two-vehicle crashes and 14 in crashes involving multiple vehicles in the remaining category.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Truck occupant deaths by crash configuration

Among people in the large truck who died in Maine truck accidents, 14 deaths occurred in single-vehicle crashes and 4 in multiple-vehicle crashes during 2020 through 2024. These figures describe truck occupants specifically, a subset distinct from everyone killed in crashes involving large trucks.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

About these figures

Maine's records come from FARS, NHTSA's census of fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes on trafficways customarily open to the public, requiring an occupant or nonoccupant death within 30 days. State and county assignments follow crash-location fields, not home addresses. Records for 2020 through 2023 are Final Files; 2024 uses the revisable Annual Report File. Rates use summed annual Census Bureau Vintage 2025 population estimates, not the separate July 1, 2024 estimate, without mileage or visitor adjustments. Nonfatal crashes and injuries are excluded from these Maine truck accident statistics, which cover fatal crashes only.^[9][6][7][8]

See also

On related publications

• Maine car accident statistics (2020-2024) (caraccidentlawyers.wiki)