Trucking-Related Deaths Fall 3.1% in 2000

Deaths involving trucking accidents declined 3.1% in 2000, compared with 1999, according to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, an agency of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Statistics show that 5,380 people died in trucking accidents in 1999 while 5,211 were killed in 2000.

Of those accidents in 1999, 759 people killed were occupants of trucks. In 2000, 741 people who died were in trucks. The number of these deaths from 1999 to 2000 fell 2.3%.

According to statistics, 4,180 people died who were in other vehicles involved in truck accidents in 1999. In 2000, 4,060 people who were in other vehicles died — a 2.9% decrease.

Truck accidents that did not involve another vehicle accounted for 480 deaths in 1999 and the same number in 2000. Truck accidents involving other vehicles resulted in 279 deaths in 1999 and 261 deaths in 2000.

Another 441 people were killed in 1999 who were non-vehicle occupants. In 2000, non-occupants accounted for 410 deaths involved in truck accidents, a 7% decline from the year before.

Injuries involving truck accidents totaled 142,000 in 1999 and 140,000 in 2000 — a 1.4% decrease.