Texas truck accident statistics (2020-2024)

Truck accident deaths in Texas by year

Truck accident deaths numbered 643 in 2020, 808 in 2021, 810 in 2022, 731 in 2023 and 720 in 2024. Their respective shares of all Texas traffic deaths were 16.6%, 18.0%, 18.4%, 17.0% and 17.3%. The highest death count was in 2022; the lowest was in 2020. The 2024 count was 77 deaths higher than 2020.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Texas accounted for 13.0% of national large-truck deaths in 2020, 13.9% in 2021, 13.6% in 2022, 13.3% in 2023 and 13.5% in 2024. Across the period, its share was 13.5% of 27,553 national deaths. The state's highest annual share of the national total occurred in 2021.^{[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 Texas truck accidents

People in the large truck accounted for 750 deaths, or 20.2%, while people in other vehicles accounted for 2,565, or 69.1%. People in other vehicles were the largest category of Texas truck accident deaths among the listed rows.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The row "Pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside vehicles" recorded 397 deaths, or 10.7%. This is the FARS nonoccupant grouping, covering pedestrians, pedalcyclists and other or unknown nonoccupants. Its other category can include occupants of parked motor vehicles; the label is not a literal test of being outside a vehicle.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The trucks involved

Fatal crashes in Texas involved 3,643 large trucks during 2020 through 2024. Truck-tractors numbered 2,263, representing 62.1% of those trucks. The single-unit and other large trucks category recorded 1,380. Trucks over 26,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating numbered 2,592, or 71.2% of the large trucks counted.^{[1][2][3][4][5][8][7]}

The records also identify 133 large trucks as jackknifed and 113 as carrying hazardous materials. Every figure in this section counts trucks, rather than truck accident deaths or fatal crashes. Multiple large trucks can be involved in a crash. The vehicle counts therefore describe truck involvement separately from the numbers of crashes and 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 numbered 906, or 24.4% of the Texas total. Listed route counts were I-35: 207; I-10: 206; I-20: 171; I-45: 94; I-30: 77; I-40: 38; I-69: 29; and I-635: 25.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

These are deaths in large-truck crashes, distinct from all traffic deaths on each route. For example, I-35 recorded 678 all-traffic deaths. The listed routes form a route-coded subset, not a complete road network. Separately, work-zone truck accident deaths numbered 306. That work-zone 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, Harris County had the highest truck accident death count, 247, with an average annual rate of 1.0 per 100,000 residents. Dallas County recorded 209 and 1.6; Tarrant County, 116 and 1.1; Bexar County, 107 and 1.0; and Travis County, 106 and 1.6.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Martin County recorded 44 deaths and the highest rate among the listed counties, 167.2. Collin County and Denton County shared the lowest listed rate, 0.9. These rows are a subset of Texas counties. Small death counts make county rates 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 Texas compares with the national rate

Texas averaged 2.5 truck accident deaths annually per 100,000 residents, compared with the national rate of 1.6. The corresponding death totals for 2020 through 2024 were 3,712 and 27,553. Texas's rate was higher than the national rate.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

The denominator sums annual Census Bureau population estimates for the period; it is not the separately reported 2024 population of 31,318,578. These rates do not adjust for miles driven or visitors. For a reader searching "truck accident lawyer," the grouping to keep in mind is crash location: the deaths counted here are not restricted to people who lived in Texas.^{[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 recorded 938 deaths.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Texas truck accident deaths were classified separately by time: daytime, 2,105; nighttime, 1,607. Land-use counts were urban, 1,595; rural, 2,116; and not reported, 1. Crash configuration recorded 705 single-vehicle deaths, 2,364 two-vehicle deaths and 643 deaths in crashes involving three or more vehicles. These configuration figures describe vehicle involvement, separately 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 Texas, 410 died in single-vehicle crashes and 340 in multiple-vehicle crashes during 2020 through 2024. These truck occupant figures describe a subset of truck accident deaths, excluding people in other vehicles and the nonoccupant category.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

About these figures

Texas figures use FARS, NHTSA's census of fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes. Inclusion requires a motor vehicle traveling on a trafficway customarily open to the public and an occupant or nonoccupant death within 30 days. State and county assignments use crash location, not residence. Nonfatal crashes and injuries are excluded.^[9][6][7][8]

The 2020 through 2023 records are Final Files; 2024's Annual Report File remains revisable. Rates divide period deaths by summed annual Census Bureau Vintage 2025 population estimates and multiply by 100,000. Neither mileage nor visitors are adjusted for; the separate July 1, 2024 estimate is not the denominator.^[9][6][7][8]

See also

• I-10 truck accidents in Texas (2020-2024)
• I-20 truck accidents in Texas (2020-2024)
• I-30 truck accidents in Texas (2020-2024)
• I-35 truck accidents in Texas (2020-2024)

On related publications

• Texas car accident statistics (2020-2024) (caraccidentlawyers.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Harris County, Texas (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Dallas County, Texas (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Tarrant County, Texas (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)
• Truck accident statistics for Bexar County, Texas (2020-2024) (truckaccidentlawyer.wiki)