IST Statement on Early Estimates of Increase in Truck Crash Fatalities

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released the devastating news that truck crash fatalities have increased 13 percent from 2020-2021, resulting in more than 5,600 people killed in large truck crashes last year. The statistics are from NHTSA’s Early Estimates of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities and Fatality Rate by Sub-Categories in 2021.

Many of these deaths were preventable and all of them are tragic.

We offer our condolences to the families of these victims and wish swift and full recoveries to the thousands who were injured in large truck crashes. Our network of families and truck crash survivors are here to support all those impacted in large truck crashes.

As we work to achieve zero truck crash deaths and injuries, the Institute for Safer Trucking will continue to educate the public about research-based solutions that can improve truck safety.

There are two policies that Secretary Buttigieg and the Department of Transportation can work on today that could make a difference in reversing this shocking truck crash fatality trend: Setting speed limiters on large trucks and increasing the minimum insurance for motor carriers operating in interstate commerce.

We commend the Secretary and Acting Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Robin Hutcheson, for initiating the rulemaking process on the former. Speed limiting technology has been available in most trucks since the 1990s. While we applaud trucking companies that voluntarily set their speed limiters to safe speeds, and urge other companies to follow suit, there remains a small segment of the trucking industry that speeds to gain a competitive advantage by not setting speed limiters in their trucks. Requiring the use of speed limiters will prevent this dangerous group of trucking companies from endangering truck drivers and everyone who shares the roads with them.

We urge Secretary Buttigieg to initiate the rulemaking process to increase the minimum insurance requirements for motor carriers operating in interstate commerce. Currently, companies are only required to have $750,000 in coverage per crash event. This amount was set in 1980 and has never been raised, not even to account for inflation over the last forty years. As a result, thousands of unsafe companies that opt for this inadequate policy amount have been involved in injurious and fatal crashes, leaving families and survivors financially devastated in addition to being harmed in a truck crash. We must end this injustice and raise the minimum insurance amounts to a level that reflects costs in 2022.

Link to Early Estimates of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities and Fatality Rate by Sub-Categories in 2021.