Virginia truck accident statistics (2020-2024)

Truck accident deaths in Virginia by year

Annual truck accident deaths were 107 in 2020, 120 in 2021, 125 in 2022, 119 in 2023 and 122 in 2024. Their shares of Virginia traffic deaths were 12.6%, 12.3%, 12.4%, 13.0% and 13.3%, respectively. Deaths were highest in 2022 and lowest in 2020; the 2024 count was 15 higher than 2020.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Virginia's annual shares of U.S. large-truck deaths were 2.2%, 2.1%, 2.1%, 2.2% and 2.3%, respectively. The lowest national share was tied in 2021 and 2022. Across the period, Virginia accounted for 2.2% of the national total. The state traffic-death share was highest in 2024 and lowest 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 Virginia truck accidents

People in the large truck accounted for 138 deaths, or 23.3%, while people in other vehicles accounted for 403, or 68.0%. The latter category had the largest death count among the listed rows. The row "Pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside vehicles" recorded 52 deaths, or 8.8%.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

That 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 category can include occupants of parked motor vehicles among these truck accident deaths.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

The trucks involved

Virginia's fatal truck accidents involved 588 large trucks during 2020 through 2024. Truck-tractors accounted for 337 trucks, or 57.3%. Single-unit and other large trucks accounted for 251. The category for large trucks over 26,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating contained 422 trucks, representing 71.8% of the large trucks counted.^{[1][2][3][4][5][8][7]}

Records identified 15 large trucks as jackknifed and 15 as carrying hazardous materials. Each figure describes trucks involved in fatal crashes, rather than a count of deaths or crashes. A truck crash can involve multiple large trucks. For 2024, the large-truck count was 125, matching the supplied NHTSA published figure.^{[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 218 in Virginia during 2020 through 2024, representing 36.8% of large-truck crash deaths. The listed route counts were 84 on I-81, 46 on I-95 and 40 on I-64. These are deaths in crashes involving large trucks.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

All traffic deaths on those routes were 155, 194 and 171, respectively, a separate measure from truck accident deaths. The route entries are a route-coded subset, not the full road network. Work-zone crashes involving large trucks accounted for 31 deaths during the period.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Counties with the most truck accident deaths

Among the listed counties, Fairfax County had the highest truck accident death count at 28, with an average annual rate of 0.5 per 100,000 residents. Wythe County recorded 18 deaths and a rate of 12.8; Henrico County recorded 17 and 1.0; Spotsylvania County recorded 16 and 2.2.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Sussex County's rate of 20.4 was highest among the listed rows, while Prince William County's 0.4 was lowest. Each recorded 11 deaths. These entries are a supplied subset; rates based on 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 Virginia compares with the national rate

Virginia's average annual truck accident death rate was 1.4 per 100,000 residents, below the national rate of 1.6. The corresponding death counts for 2020 through 2024 were 593 in Virginia and 27,553 nationally. These rates express deaths relative to population across the period.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

The denominator adds the annual Census Bureau population estimates for 2020 through 2024; it does not use only Virginia's 2024 population of 8,819,642. Neither mileage nor visitors are adjustments in this measure. Readers searching for a truck accident lawyer should keep these population-based rates distinct from the table's counts of deaths.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Manner of collision and setting

Manner of collision describes the first harmful event. Angle collisions accounted for 182 deaths. "Not a collision with another moving vehicle" also recorded 182: it means no collision with a motor vehicle in transport, which can be stopped in traffic.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Daytime truck accident deaths numbered 376; nighttime deaths numbered 217. Urban deaths numbered 226, versus 367 rural deaths. Separate crash-configuration figures counted 127 deaths in single-vehicle crashes, 349 in two-vehicle crashes and 117 in crashes involving three or more vehicles. Configuration counts vehicles involved, not collision manner.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

Truck occupant deaths by crash configuration

Among people in the large truck who died in Virginia, 89 were killed in single-vehicle crashes and 49 in multiple-vehicle crashes during 2020 through 2024. This truck-occupant subset is distinct from all truck accident deaths, which also include people in other vehicles and nonoccupants.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}

About these figures

Virginia's FARS records cover fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes on trafficways customarily open to the public, with death within 30 days. State and county counts follow crash location, not where those killed lived. Nonfatal crashes and injuries are excluded.^[9][6][7][8]

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

See also

• I-64 truck accidents in Virginia (2020-2024)
• I-81 truck accidents in Virginia (2020-2024)
• I-95 truck accidents in Virginia (2020-2024)

On related publications

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