Minnesota truck accident statistics (2020-2024)

Truck accident deaths in Minnesota by year

Annual truck accident deaths were 58 in 2020, 81 in 2021, 76 in 2022, 69 in 2023 and 81 in 2024. Their respective shares of all traffic deaths were 14.7%, 16.6%, 17.1%, 17.2% and 17.0%. The highest death count was tied in 2021 and 2024; 2020 had the lowest. The 2024 count was 23 deaths higher than 2020.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Minnesota's shares of the national large-truck death total were 1.2%, 1.4%, 1.3%, 1.3% and 1.5% in those respective years. Across the full period, Minnesota accounted for 1.3% of 27,553 national deaths. The state's truck accident share of all traffic deaths was highest in 2023 and lowest in 2020.^{[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 Minnesota truck accidents

People in other vehicles accounted for 279 truck accident deaths, or 76.4%, the largest share among the listed rows. People in the large truck accounted for 61 deaths, or 16.7%. The row "Pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside vehicles" recorded 25 deaths, or 6.8%.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

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

The trucks involved

Fatal crashes in Minnesota involved 351 large trucks during 2020 through 2024. Truck-tractors accounted for 205 trucks, or 58.4%. Single-unit and other large trucks numbered 146. The count for large trucks over 26,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating was 262, representing 74.6% of the large trucks involved.^{[1][2][3][4][5][8][7]}

The records also identified 13 large trucks as jackknifed and 12 large trucks carrying hazardous materials. Each of these figures counts trucks, rather than truck accident deaths or fatal crashes. A crash can involve multiple large trucks. For 2024, NHTSA's published count was 73 large trucks involved in fatal crashes.^{[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 53 in Minnesota during 2020 through 2024, representing 14.5% of large-truck crash deaths. The supplied I-94 row lists 25 deaths in large-truck crashes and 60 deaths from all crashes on that route. Those columns describe different death totals.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The interstate figures require both an interstate route classification and a readable interstate route number in the FARS record. Listed routes constitute a route-coded subset, not the full road network. Separately, work-zone records counted 22 truck accident deaths, a measure of people killed rather than trucks or crashes.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Counties with the most truck accident deaths

Among the listed counties, Hennepin County had the highest truck accident death count, 21, and the lowest average annual rate, 0.3 per 100,000 residents. St. Louis County and Stearns County each recorded 17 deaths, with rates of 1.7 and 2.1, respectively.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Freeborn County had 11 deaths and the highest rate among the listed counties, 7.2. Kandiyohi County recorded 14 deaths and a rate of 6.3. These rows are a supplied subset of Minnesota counties. Counts and rates measure different things, and county 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 Minnesota compares with the national rate

Minnesota's average annual truck accident death rate was 1.3 per 100,000 residents, compared with the national rate of 1.6. The corresponding death counts for 2020 through 2024 were 365 in Minnesota and 27,553 nationally. Minnesota's rate was lower than the national rate.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

The denominator sums annual Census Bureau population estimates across the reporting period; it is not the 2024 population of 5,797,405 alone. Rates use Vintage 2025 estimates and do not adjust for miles driven or visitors. When reading these figures while considering a truck accident lawyer, keep the population-based rates distinct from death counts.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Manner of collision and setting

Manner of collision describes the first harmful event. Angle collisions accounted for 153 deaths. "Not a collision with another moving vehicle" accounted for 72: this means no collision with a motor vehicle in transport, which can include vehicles stopped in traffic.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Separate truck accident classifications recorded 280 daytime and 85 nighttime deaths; urban deaths numbered 108, rural deaths 255, and land use was unreported for 2. Crash configuration separately recorded 58 single-vehicle deaths, 269 two-vehicle deaths and 38 deaths in crashes involving three or more vehicles.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Truck occupant deaths by crash configuration

Among people in the large truck who died in Minnesota during 2020 through 2024, 37 died in single-vehicle crashes and 24 in multiple-vehicle crashes. These figures describe the truck-occupant subset. They do not represent everyone killed in truck accidents, which also include other person categories.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

About these figures

Minnesota's FARS records cover fatal traffic crashes involving a motor vehicle on a trafficway customarily open to the public, with an occupant or nonoccupant dying within 30 days. Nonfatal crashes and injuries are excluded. State and county counts follow crash location, not the deceased person's residence.^[9][6][7][8]

The 2020 through 2023 records are Final Files; 2024 uses the revisable Annual Report File. Minnesota's rates divide deaths by summed annual Census population estimates, Vintage 2025, and multiply by 100,000. The separately shown July 1, 2024 population is not that denominator. Rates exclude mileage and visitor adjustments.^[9][6][7][8]

See also

• I-94 truck accidents in Minnesota (2020-2024)

On related publications

• Minnesota car accident statistics (2020-2024) (caraccidentlawyers.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Hennepin County, Minnesota (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)