US Truck Crash Fatalities by State: 2024 Data (All 50 States)

Every one of those deaths is somebody’s family getting a call, or a driver who didn’t make it home. The federal numbers behind them are all public, but they’re scattered. NHTSA publishes national totals. FMCSA publishes broader carrier-reported data with slightly higher counts. IIHS publishes rates. State DOTs publish the local detail.

We pulled the 2024 pieces into one place: every state’s count, the two rate numbers people keep confusing, the ten-year trend, and who’s actually dying. Each number carries one source citation.

If a truck crash has touched you or your family, the evidence is already on a timer. A big rig truck accident lawyer can start the preservation process before carriers purge records on their retention schedules. Start with a free case review.

The 2024 headline: 5,340 deaths, 5,218 trucks

You’ll see two different 2024 figures in NHTSA's own reporting. Both are right. They just count different things in the same crashes:

• 5,340 people killed. The FARS count of people who died in crashes involving at least one large truck. It’s the headline number IIHS reports as "deaths in large-truck crashes."
• 5,218 large trucks in fatal crashes. The count of trucks, not people, that were in a fatal crash. Some wrecks involve more than one rig; some kill several people. So you can’t line the two totals up directly.

When you quote one, say what it counts. For the human toll, use "5,340 people killed." Save "5,218 large trucks involved" for when you’re talking about vehicles.

Who dies in these crashes

Most of the people killed weren’t in the truck. They were in the car, on the bike, or on foot. Per IIHS Fatality Facts 2024:

• 62% of the 5,340 people killed were occupants of passenger vehicles (cars, SUVs, pickups) — 3,293 people.
• 17% were occupants of the large truck itself — 920 people.
• 19% were pedestrians, cyclists, or motorcyclists — 1,021 people.

71% of large-truck occupant fatalities in 2024 occurred in rural areas. That matters two ways. Out there, the ambulance is farther away. And long-haul freight runs through corridors that cross less-populated states, so that’s where a lot of truckers are when things go wrong.

Top 10 states by absolute count

Raw counts mostly track population and how many truck miles get run in a state. Texas is the most populous truck-corridor state and moves the most interstate freight, so it tops the list. For deadlines and fault rules in your state, see the state-by-state guides.

Top 10 states by share of fatal crashes involving a large truck

This list looks nothing like the first one. The share leaders are almost all low-population, long-haul corridor states. North Dakota's 18.1% doesn’t mean it has more truck crashes than Texas. It has far fewer. It means that of the fatal crashes that happen there, nearly one in five involves a large truck. That tells you about exposure per person and about the kind of road: rural interstate, long line-of-sight.

Flip to the bottom and you see the opposite. Hawaii (1.5%), District of Columbia (1.6%), and Puerto Rico (3.1%) are places where long-haul trucking is a small slice of overall driving. Massachusetts (5.8%), Vermont (6.0%), and New Hampshire (6.2%) sit at the bottom of the continental U.S. share table.

The full 50-state + DC + Puerto Rico table

Find your state below (alphabetical). Each row shows large trucks in fatal crashes and their share of that state's fatal crashes for 2024, per NHTSA DOT HS 813 816, Table 6.

The U.S. total of 5,218 counts trucks involved. The number of people killed in those same crashes is 5,340. Both come from the same NHTSA publication.

Looking up your state because of a crash of your own? See who can be held liable after a truck crash and what compensation may cover, then start a free case review.

Two rate metrics — and why they are not the same number

Raw counts favor big states. To compare fairly you need a rate, a count divided by miles driven. NHTSA and IIHS both publish one, but they measure different things, and mixing them up is a common mistake.

They’re far apart because one counts only people inside the truck and the other counts every fatal crash a truck was in. If you cite both, label what each one counts. For an injured family’s claim, the involvement rate usually says more, because it captures everyone hurt, not just the trucker.

The ten-year trajectory: +58% since 2009

2024 wasn’t a fluke. Large trucks in fatal crashes rose from 4,075 in 2015 to 5,218 in 2024 per NHTSA, a 28% increase in a decade. The per-VMT rate rose from 1.46 to 1.58 over the same stretch, so more miles on the road doesn’t fully explain it.

The 2024 figure (5,218 trucks / 5,340 people) is 2.5% below the 2023 peak but still 58% above the 2009 baseline of 3,380 people killed. Whether that dip holds won’t be known until the 2025 FARS release, which usually publishes in mid-to-late 2026.

What state-level fatality volume means for a case

Where your state ranks won’t decide your claim. These things will:

• Whether the evidence was preserved. Engine control module data, ELD records, dash cam footage, and dispatch records have short retention windows. See FMCSA regulations and the evidence that wins truck accident cases.
• Whether the crash falls within the statute of limitations for the state where it occurred.
• Who can be held liable — the driver, the carrier, the broker, the shipper, the maintenance contractor, the manufacturer, or a combination.
• The specific causes of the crash. Fatigue, brake failure, jackknife, underride, and blind-spot crashes each need different proof.
• The injuries sustained and the resulting compensation categories the case supports.

Methodology and freshness

Every number above is from a primary source published in 2024, 2025, or 2026. State counts come from NHTSA DOT HS 813 816 (June 2026), Table 6. Rate figures are labeled by their source publication and year. The 10-year trend uses NHTSA DOT HS 813 816 Table 3.

FMCSA MCMIS reports a slightly higher 2024 total (5,600 people killed) than NHTSA FARS (5,340). Both are official; the difference reflects different collection methodologies (FARS is a NHTSA census of fatal-crash records; MCMIS is FMCSA's carrier-reporting file aggregated from state reports). For national fatality counts, FARS is the standard citation.

You’ll see "most dangerous state per capita" rankings repeated all over law-firm blogs, often naming Wyoming, Arkansas, or Oklahoma. Those trace to 2005 data. We left them out because they’re two decades stale.

If you or someone in your family was hurt in a truck crash, the clock started the moment it happened, and the carrier’s records are already on retention schedules. Start with a free case review — no cost, no obligation.