Tennessee truck accident statistics (2020-2024)

Truck accident deaths in Tennessee by year

Truck accident deaths numbered 179 in 2020 and 179 in 2021, the joint highest annual counts. Their shares of all Tennessee traffic deaths were 14.7% and 13.5%, respectively. The lowest counts were 154 in both 2022 and 2023, with shares of 11.7% and 11.6%. In 2024, 171 deaths represented 14.3%, and the count was 8 deaths lower than in 2020.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Tennessee's shares of the national large-truck death total were 3.6% in 2020, 3.1% in 2021, 2.6% in 2022, 2.8% in 2023 and 3.2% in 2024. Across the full period, Tennessee accounted for 3.0% 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 Tennessee truck accidents

People in the large truck accounted for 155 deaths, or 18.5%; people in other vehicles accounted for 597, or 71.3%. The row "Pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside vehicles" records 85 deaths, or 10.2%. This is the FARS nonoccupant grouping: pedestrians, pedalcyclists and other or unknown nonoccupants. It can include occupants of parked motor vehicles, so the label is not a literal test of being outside a vehicle. For readers searching for a truck accident lawyer, these figures group deaths by person category.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The trucks involved

Tennessee's fatal crashes involved 822 large trucks during 2020 through 2024. Truck-tractors accounted for 497 trucks, or 60.5% of that vehicle count. The category single-unit and other large trucks recorded 325. Separately, 618 trucks had a gross vehicle weight rating over 26,000 pounds, representing 75.2% of the large trucks counted.^{[1][2][3][4][5][8][7]}

Records identified 16 large trucks as jackknifed and 24 as carrying hazardous materials. Each figure counts trucks, rather than truck accident deaths or fatal crashes. A crash can involve multiple large trucks. The truck counts therefore describe vehicles involved in fatal crashes, while the death tables describe people killed.^{[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 328, or 39.2% of Tennessee's large-truck crash deaths. The listed route-coded counts were 163 on I-40, 48 on I-24, 45 on I-75 and 30 on I-65. These routes are a supplied subset, not a complete road network.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

All traffic deaths on those routes were separately recorded as 379 on I-40, 209 on I-24, 104 on I-75 and 83 on I-65. Those figures include all route deaths, not solely large-truck deaths. Work-zone truck accident deaths numbered 51 during 2020 through 2024.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Counties with the most truck accident deaths

Among the listed counties, Shelby County had the highest truck accident death count at 101, with an average annual rate of 2.2 per 100,000 residents. Davidson County recorded 64 deaths and a rate of 1.8; Knox County recorded 44 and 1.8.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Haywood County had 17 deaths and the highest rate among the listed counties, 19.4. Williamson County recorded 16 deaths and the lowest listed rate, 1.2. The county rows are a subset. Counts and rates measure different things, and 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 Tennessee compares with the national rate

Tennessee's average annual truck accident death rate was 2.4 per 100,000 residents, compared with the national rate of 1.6. The corresponding death counts for 2020 through 2024 were 837 in Tennessee and 27,553 across the United States. Tennessee's rate was higher than the national rate.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

The denominator sums annual Census Bureau population estimates for the entire period; it is not just the latest population. Tennessee's separately shown July 1, 2024 estimate is 7,251,291. Rates use Vintage 2025 estimates and multiply deaths divided by summed population by 100,000. Neither mileage nor visitors are adjustments in this calculation.^{[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" means no collision with a motor vehicle in transport; transport includes vehicles stopped in traffic. That row records 221 deaths; angle collisions record 237.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Daytime truck accident deaths numbered 505; nighttime deaths numbered 317; time was unreported for 15. Urban deaths numbered 427 and rural deaths 410. Separately, crash configuration records 164 deaths in single-vehicle crashes, 508 in two-vehicle crashes and 165 in crashes involving three or more vehicles, distinct from manner of collision.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Truck occupant deaths by crash configuration

Among people in the large truck who died in Tennessee, 97 were in single-vehicle crashes and 58 were in multiple-vehicle crashes during 2020 through 2024. These counts describe truck occupants only. They are a subset of truck accident deaths, which also include other person categories.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

About these figures

Tennessee figures use NHTSA FARS, a fatal-crash census requiring a motor vehicle on a trafficway customarily open to the public and an occupant or nonoccupant death within 30 days. State and county assignments follow crash location, not residence. Nonfatal crashes and injuries are excluded.^[9][6][7][8]

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

See also

• I-24 truck accidents in Tennessee (2020-2024)
• I-40 truck accidents in Tennessee (2020-2024)
• I-65 truck accidents in Tennessee (2020-2024)
• I-75 truck accidents in Tennessee (2020-2024)

On related publications

• Tennessee car accident statistics (2020-2024) (caraccidentlawyers.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Shelby County, Tennessee (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Davidson County, Tennessee (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Knox County, Tennessee (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Hamilton County, Tennessee (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Madison County, Tennessee (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)