North Dakota truck accident statistics (2020-2024)

Truck accident deaths in North Dakota by year

Annual truck accident deaths were 21 in 2020, 13 in 2021, 31 in 2022, 26 in 2023 and 24 in 2024. Their shares of all traffic deaths were 21.0%, 12.9%, 31.6%, 24.5% and 26.7%, respectively. Both deaths and their traffic-death share were highest in 2022 and lowest in 2021. The 2024 death count was 3 higher than in 2020.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

North Dakota's shares of national large-truck deaths were 0.4%, 0.2%, 0.5%, 0.5% and 0.4% across those years. The highest reported national share was 0.5%, shown for both 2022 and 2023. Across the full period, North Dakota accounted for 0.4% 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 North Dakota truck accidents

People in other vehicles accounted for 88 truck accident deaths, or 76.5%. People in the large truck accounted for 23 deaths, or 20.0%. The row "Pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside vehicles" recorded 4 deaths, or 3.5%.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

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

The trucks involved

Fatal crashes in North Dakota involved 116 large trucks during 2020 through 2024. Truck-tractors accounted for 73 trucks, or 62.9%; the single-unit and other large trucks category counted 43. There were 83 large trucks over 26,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, representing 71.6% of the large trucks involved.^{[1][2][3][4][5][8][7]}

Records identified 7 large trucks as jackknifed and 7 as carrying hazardous materials. Each figure in this section counts trucks, not truck accident deaths or fatal crashes. A crash can involve multiple large trucks. For 2024, NHTSA's published truck count was 23, matching the count derived from the supplied 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 crashes accounted for 18 large-truck deaths in North Dakota during 2020 through 2024, or 15.7% of truck accident deaths. The interstate measure uses the interstate route code and a parseable I-route number. No interstate segment met the 20-death listing threshold, so the table supplies no individual route death counts.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The route table distinguishes deaths in large-truck crashes from all deaths on a listed route. Its route-coded subset does not describe the full road network. Separately, work-zone truck accidents accounted for 3 deaths, a count of people rather than crashes.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Counties with the most truck accident deaths

Among the listed counties, McKenzie County had the highest truck accident death count, 15, and highest average annual rate, 20.9 per 100,000 residents. Williams County recorded 14 deaths and a rate of 7.1. Cass County recorded 10 deaths; its rate of 1.0 was the lowest among the listed counties.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Burleigh County had 9 deaths and a rate of 1.8, while Morton County had 7 deaths and a rate of 4.1. These rows are a county subset. Rates based on 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 North Dakota compares with the national rate

North Dakota's average annual truck accident death rate was 2.9 per 100,000 residents, compared with the national rate of 1.6. The corresponding death counts for 2020 through 2024 were 115 in North Dakota and 27,553 nationally. These rates compare deaths against population, with North Dakota's rate higher than the national figure.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

The denominator sums annual Census population estimates across the period; it is not the separately reported 2024 population of 793,387. Neither mileage nor visitors are adjustments in this calculation. For readers searching for a truck accident lawyer, these figures group deaths by crash location.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Manner of collision and setting

Manner of collision describes the first harmful event: angle collisions recorded 41 deaths. "Not a collision with another moving vehicle" recorded 21 and means no collision with a motor vehicle in transport; vehicles stopped in traffic can be in transport.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Separate truck accident classifications recorded daytime deaths of 77, nighttime deaths of 37 and unreported time for 1. Urban deaths numbered 10; rural deaths numbered 105. Crash configuration, distinct from collision manner, recorded 17 single-vehicle deaths, 84 two-vehicle deaths and 14 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 North Dakota, 13 were in single-vehicle crashes and 10 were in multiple-vehicle crashes during 2020 through 2024. This truck-occupant subset is distinct from the full truck accident death count, which also includes other person categories.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

About these figures

North Dakota's figures use NHTSA FARS, a census of fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes. Inclusion requires a motor vehicle traveling 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 crash location, not residence.^[9][6][7][8]

The 2020 through 2023 records are Final Files; the 2024 Annual Report File remains revisable. Rates divide deaths by summed annual Census Bureau estimates, Vintage 2025, then multiply by 100,000. They do not adjust for mileage or visitors; the separate July 1, 2024 estimate is not the denominator.^[9][6][7][8]

See also

On related publications

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