Personal Injury Law Blog

Statistics on motor vehicle crashes released by the state of Illinois show a high fatality rate for truck accidents. In 2011, the most recent year for which final data are available, there were 10,033 crashes involving tractor-trailers. This is 3.6 percent of the total of 281,788 motor vehicle crashes in the state.

There were 81 fatal crashes involving tractor-trailers, which accounts for 9.7 percent of the total of 835 fatal crashes. There were another 1,750 truck crashes resulting in injury and 8,202 that involved only property damage.

There were 93 people killed in the 81 fatal truck crashes in 2011. Fifteen of the people killed were occupants of the truck, while 74 were occupants of another vehicle. Truck crash fatalities decreased 3.6 percent from the total of 96 in 2010.

The fatality rate for motor vehicle crashes overall in the state was 0.33 percent, with 918 deaths occurring and 281,788 crashes taking place. The fatality rate for truck accidents was 0.93 percent, with 93 people killed and 10,033 truck crashes occurring.

The overall injury rate for motor vehicle accidents was 29.9 percent, with 84,172 people injured. For truck accidents, the injury rate was 17.4 percent.

The data were released by the Illinois Department of Transportation in its publication Illinois Crash Facts. Governor Pat Quinn noted that traffic fatalities were decreasing and seat belt usage was up, but that there was work still to be done to improve traffic safety.

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