Large Trucks’ Roles in the Increase of Fatal Work Zone Crashes

Going through a work zone is often times monotonous and can take a toll on an individual’s patience. No matter if you are on a motorcycle, in a car, or in a large commercial truck, you are trying to get through construction as fast as you can to get to your final destination. In our need for speed, fatal work zone crashes have gone up over 11% from 2018 to 2019. During that 11% growth, it became a problematic concern to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) how great of a role large trucks played in that statistic.

Trucks Involved in Work Zone Crashes

In 2019, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reported 842 people died in highway work zone vehicle accidents. Additionally, it is noted that 33% of these fatal work zone crashes involved a large, commercial vehicle. This amounts to almost 280 work zone crashes with large trucks or buses associated. Overall, we saw a total increase of 85 deaths from 2018 to 2019 and a 16% increase in the number of work zone crashes that involved commercial motor vehicles (CMV).

Work zone crashes from 2018 to 2019:

How to Prevent Fatal Crashes?

Florida, Georgia, and Texas experience the highest number of fatal work zone crashes that involve large trucks and/or buses nationwide. With their best effort to minimize this, the FMCSA will focus safety awareness initiatives in these three states. While they do that, there are a few things we can all do to stay safe in a work zone: