Massachusetts truck accident statistics (2020-2024)

Truck accident deaths in Massachusetts by year

Truck accident deaths numbered 27 in 2020, 32 in 2021, 46 in 2022, 23 in 2023 and 31 in 2024. Their shares of Massachusetts traffic deaths were 7.9%, 7.7%, 10.6%, 6.7% and 8.5%, respectively. Both the death count and the share were highest in 2022 and lowest in 2023. The 2024 death count was 4 higher than in 2020.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Massachusetts accounted for 0.5% of national large-truck deaths in 2020 and 2021, 0.8% in 2022, 0.4% in 2023 and 0.6% in 2024. Across 2020 through 2024, the state's 159 truck accident deaths represented 0.6% of the national total of 27,553 deaths.^{[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 Massachusetts truck accidents

People in the large truck accounted for 14 deaths, or 8.8%; people in other vehicles accounted for 110, or 69.2%. The latter category had the largest death count among the listed rows.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The row "Pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside vehicles" records 35 deaths, or 22.0%. This is the FARS nonoccupant grouping: pedestrians, pedalcyclists, and other or unknown nonoccupants. Its other category can include occupants of parked motor vehicles. The label therefore describes a person-type classification, rather than a literal test of whether someone was outside a vehicle.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The trucks involved

The Massachusetts records contain 158 large trucks involved in fatal crashes during 2020 through 2024. Of these, 57 were truck-tractors, representing 36.1% of the large trucks counted. Single-unit and other large trucks accounted for 101 vehicles. The gross vehicle weight rating category over 26,000 pounds contained 92 large trucks, or 58.2%.^{[1][2][3][4][5][8][7]}

Records identify 2 large trucks as jackknifed and 2 as carrying hazardous materials. These are vehicle counts, not numbers of truck accident deaths or fatal crashes. A fatal crash can involve multiple large trucks, so the truck total and the crash total describe different units within the Massachusetts 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 totaled 54 in Massachusetts from 2020 through 2024, representing 34.0% of deaths in large-truck crashes. No interstate segment met the route table's 20-death threshold. Its 0 entries accompany that threshold statement; they do not replace the statewide interstate death count.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The route table separates deaths in large-truck crashes from all deaths on a listed route. Its route-coded subset is not a complete road network. Separately, work-zone records identify 5 truck accident deaths during the period. That figure counts people killed, rather than trucks or crashes.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Counties with the most truck accident deaths

Among the listed counties, Middlesex County had the highest truck accident death count, 34, with an average annual rate of 0.4 per 100,000 residents. Worcester County recorded 25 deaths and a rate of 0.6; Bristol County recorded 18 and 0.6; Norfolk County recorded 16 and 0.4.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Nantucket County had 1 death and the highest rate among the listed counties, 1.4. Essex County and Suffolk County shared the lowest listed rate, 0.3. These rows are a county subset. Rates for counties with small death counts 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 Massachusetts compares with the national rate

The average annual Massachusetts truck accident death rate was 0.5 per 100,000 residents for 2020 through 2024, below the national rate of 1.6. The corresponding death counts were 159 in Massachusetts and 27,553 nationally.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Each rate uses deaths divided by the sum of annual Census population estimates for the period, multiplied by 100,000. Massachusetts's separately displayed July 1, 2024 population of 7,138,560 is not that denominator. Neither rate adjusts for mileage or visitors. Readers searching for a truck accident lawyer should keep these population-based rates distinct from the death counts grouped by crash location.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Manner of collision and setting

Manner of collision describes the first harmful event. "Not a collision with another moving vehicle" records 51 deaths and means no collision with a motor vehicle in transport; transport includes vehicles stopped in traffic.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Daytime accounted for 104 truck accident deaths and nighttime for 54; time was unreported for 1. Urban locations recorded 150 deaths; rural locations recorded 9. Separately, crash configuration records 42 deaths in single-vehicle crashes, 84 in two-vehicle crashes and 33 in crashes involving three or more vehicles. Configuration describes vehicle count, not collision manner.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Truck occupant deaths by crash configuration

Among people in the large truck who died in Massachusetts truck accidents, 12 died in single-vehicle crashes and 2 in multiple-vehicle crashes during 2020 through 2024. These figures describe truck occupants only, a subset distinct from everyone killed in crashes involving a large truck.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

About these figures

Massachusetts figures use NHTSA FARS, a census of fatal traffic crashes involving a motor vehicle on a trafficway customarily open to the public and a death within 30 days. Nonfatal crashes and injuries are excluded. State and county assignments follow recorded crash locations, not home addresses.^[9][6][7][8]

The 2020 through 2023 records are Final Files; 2024 uses the revisable Annual Report File. Rates use summed annual Census Bureau Vintage 2025 population estimates, multiplied into deaths per 100,000 residents, without mileage or visitor adjustments. The separately shown July 1, 2024 estimate is not the denominator.^[9][6][7][8]

See also

On related publications

• Massachusetts car accident statistics (2020-2024) (caraccidentlawyers.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Middlesex County, Massachusetts (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Worcester County, Massachusetts (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)