Most Dangerous States for Large Truck Crashes

A new 50-state + D.C. analysis of federal crash data shows that your chances of dying in a crash involving a large truck depend heavily on where you live, and the gap between the safest and most dangerous states is wider than most people realize.

<a href="https://www.haroldgerrlaw.com/research-studies/most-dangerous-states-for-large-truck-crashes/">
<img src="https://cdn.sanity.io/images/25kq41c9/production/7fbdd0cd88648395111e7b7817858899e110811f-1920x7698.png" alt="Most Dangerous States for Large Truck Crashes - Law Offices of Harold J. Gerr New Jersey Truck Accident Lawyers - Infographic" title="Most Dangerous States for Large Truck Crashes - HaroldGerrLaw.com - Infographic"></a><br><a href="https://www.haroldgerrlaw.com" alt="Law Offices of Harold J. Gerr New Jersey Truck Accident Lawyers" title="HaroldGerrLaw.com">By HaroldGerrLaw.com</a>

If you live in Wyoming, your risk of dying in a crash involving a large truck is more than four times higher than the national average. The state recorded 7.02 fatalities per 100,000 residents in 2023, the highest rate in the country.

That one number tells a bigger story. Across the entire country, 5,472 people lost their lives in crashes involving large trucks in a single year. That's not an abstract statistic. It touches every state, every highway, and practically every family that spends time on the road.

But what the data makes clear is that where you live matters enormously. Two people can drive the same type of road, in the same kind of vehicle, and face very different levels of risk depending on which state they call home.

Key Findings

• Wyoming ranks #1 with 7.02 large truck crash fatalities per 100,000 residents (2023), 4.31 times the national average of 1.63 per 100,000.
• 5,472 people died in crashes involving large trucks across the United States in 2023.
• 27 of 50 states and D.C. exceeded the national average fatality rate of 1.63 per 100,000, meaning more than half the country has an above-average risk.
• The top 10 states are all predominantly rural: Wyoming, New Mexico, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Idaho, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana. None of them is a major urban corridor state.
• Texas recorded the highest raw death toll with 730 fatalities in large truck-involved crashes in 2023, nearly double California's 392.
• The three highest-rated states, Wyoming (7.02), New Mexico (4.63), and Mississippi (3.64), all exceed twice the national average.
• New Jersey ranks 46th with 0.67 fatalities per 100,000 residents, 58.9% below the national average, though the state still recorded 62 large truck crash deaths in 2023.

Where the Risk Is Highest

Wyoming leads the country, but the whole top of the ranking tells a clear story about geography. New Mexico (4.63 per 100,000), Mississippi (3.64), North Dakota (3.32), and Oklahoma (3.18) fill out the top five. Every one of these states has something in common: long driving distances, heavy freight traffic on rural two-lane highways, and limited emergency response infrastructure compared to more densely populated states.

Every state in the top 10 recorded a rate at least 80% above the national average. Wyoming's rate of 7.02 per 100,000 is 4.31 times the national figure, meaning a Wyoming resident is statistically more than four times as likely to die in a large truck-involved crash as the average American. Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana all tied at 3.03 per 100,000, occupying ranks 7 through 10 and separated only by their raw fatality counts.

It's not hard to see why. These are states where freight routes cut through wide-open terrain, where a breakdown or crash might mean a long wait for emergency services, and where median barriers and roadway lighting are far less common than on the country's busiest urban corridors.

The National Picture

The 5,472 people who died in large truck-involved crashes in 2023 include everyone killed in a crash where a large truck was present: truck occupants, occupants of other vehicles, and nonoccupants like pedestrians and cyclists.

More than half the country, 27 of 50 states and D.C., recorded a rate above the national average of 1.63 per 100,000. Texas had the highest raw death toll by a wide margin, with 730 fatalities in 2023. That's nearly double California's 392. But Texas's per-capita rate of 2.39 per 100,000 puts it at 17th overall, a reminder that total death counts and individual risk aren't the same thing.

That's really the key to reading this data correctly. High-population states tend to pile up large absolute numbers, but the risk to any individual living there can still be lower than in a smaller state with a fraction of the total deaths. Per-capita rates are what tells you how likely you personally are to be affected.

How New Jersey Compares

New Jersey comes in at 46th out of 50 states and D.C., with a fatality rate of 0.67 per 100,000 residents, 58.9% below the national average.

For a state that sits squarely on the I-95 spine, one of the highest-volume freight corridors in the country by shipment weight (Federal Highway Administration Freight Analysis Framework), that's a notable result. New Jersey's 9.3 million residents create a large population base that keeps the per-capita rate relatively low, even with significant truck traffic moving through the state daily.

Still, 62 people died in large truck-involved crashes in New Jersey in 2023. A low ranking compared to Wyoming doesn't mean zero risk. Wyoming's rate is 10.48 times New Jersey's, the widest state-to-state gap in the entire dataset. But New Jersey residents who travel I-95, the Turnpike, or any of the state's major freight routes share the road with large trucks every single day, and these crashes remain among the most catastrophic collision types regardless of where they happen.

Methodology

This analysis draws on fatal crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2023 Annual Report File (ARF), published in April 2025 as Traffic Safety Facts: Large Trucks 2023 (DOT HS 813 717). The analysis uses the state-level fatality figures reported in Table 7 of that publication, which covers all fatalities in crashes involving large trucks, defined by NHTSA as medium or heavy trucks (excluding buses and motor homes) with a gross vehicle weight rating exceeding 10,000 pounds. Fatalities include all person types: large-truck occupants, occupants of other vehicles, and nonoccupants (pedestrians, cyclists, and others).

Per-capita rates were calculated by dividing each state's reported fatality count by the state's July 1, 2023 resident population estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2024, then multiplying by 100,000. The national rate (1.63 per 100,000) uses the same methodology applied to total U.S. fatalities (5,472) and the total U.S. population (334,815,874). Where two or more states recorded identical rates when rounded to two decimal places, they were ranked by total fatality count descending. All 50 states and the District of Columbia are included; no states were suppressed or excluded.

Data was accessed in June 2026. The 2023 ARF is the most recent year for which NHTSA has published a state-level Large Trucks Traffic Safety Facts sheet at time of analysis. As with all FARS ARF data, figures are preliminary and subject to minor revision in the Final File release; however, state-level totals in published fact sheets historically differ from the Final File by less than one percent.

About The Law Offices of Harold J. Gerr

The Law Offices of Harold J. Gerr is a New Jersey-based personal injury law firm. The firm represents individuals and families injured in accidents involving large trucks, automobiles, and other vehicles. For more information, visit haroldgerrlaw.com.

Data Sources

NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts: Large Trucks 2023 (DOT HS 813 717, April 2025). Table 7: Fatalities in Traffic Crashes Involving Large Trucks, by State and Person Type, 2023. crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov

U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2024. July 1, 2023 state resident population estimates. census.gov/popest