BTS | Table 2-1: Transportation Fatalities by Mode

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Table 2-1: Transportation Fatalities by Mode

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	1960	1965	1970	1975	1980	1985	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
TOTAL fatalities	U	U	U	U	U	U	47,347	44,320	42,032	42,810	43,558	44,527	44,798	44,444	^R43,910	^R44,047	^R44,333	44,933	U
Air
U.S. air carrier^a	499	261	146	124	1	526	39	^l 50	33	1	239	168	380	8	1	12	92	531	^P0
Commuter carrier^b	N	N	N	28	37	37	6	^l 77	21	24	25	9	14	46	0	12	5	13	^P0
On-demand air taxi^c	N	N	N	69	105	76	51	78	68	42	63	52	63	39	45	38	71	60	33
General aviation^d	787	1,029	1,310	1,252	1,239	956	767	799	867	744	730	735	636	631	624	619	^R595	^R562	^P576
Highway, total	36,399	47,089	52,627	44,525	51,091	43,825	44,599	41,508	39,250	40,150	40,716	41,817	^m 42,065	42,013	41,501	41,717	41,945	^R42,196	42,815
Passenger car occupants	N	N	N	25,929	27,449	23,212	24,092	22,385	21,387	21,566	21,997	22,423	22,505	22,199	21,194	20,862	20,699	^R20,320	20,416
Motorcyclists	790	1,650	2,280	3,189	5,144	4,564	3,244	2,806	2,395	2,449	2,320	2,227	2,161	2,116	2,294	2,483	2,897	^R3,197	3,244
Truck occupants^e, light	N	N	N	4,856	7,486	6,689	8,601	8,391	8,098	8,511	8,904	9,568	9,932	10,249	10,705	11,265	11,526	^R11,723	12,182
Truck occupants^e, large	N	N	N	961	1,262	977	705	661	585	605	670	648	621	723	742	759	754	^R708	684
Bus occupants	N	N	N	53	46	57	32	31	28	18	18	33	21	18	38	59	22	^R34	45
Pedestrians	7,210	7,990	8,950	7,516	8,070	6,808	6,482	5,801	5,549	5,649	5,489	5,584	5,449	5,321	5,228	4,939	4,763	^R4,901	4,808
Pedalcyclists	490	690	760	1,003	965	890	859	843	723	816	802	833	765	814	760	754	693	^R732	662
Other^f	27,909	36,759	40,637	1,018	669	628	584	590	485	536	516	501	609	573	540	596	591	^R581	774
Railroad^g	2,345	2,533	2,225	1,492	1,417	1,036	1,297	1,194	1,170	1,279	1,226	1,146	1,039	1,063	1,008	932	937	971	951
Highway-rail grade crossing	1,421	1,610	1,440	917	833	582	698	608	579	626	615	579	488	461	431	402	425	421	^P 355
Railroad	924	923	785	575	584	454	599	586	591	653	611	567	551	602	577	530	512	^R550	^P 596
Transit ^h	N	N	N	N	N	N	339	300	273	281	320	274	264	275	286	299	295	267	U
Waterborne, total ⁱ	N	N	2,016	2,039	1,847	1,377	1,051	1,010	1,006	1,009	963	975	856	959	982	888	838	820	U
Vessel-related ^j	N	N	178	243	206	131	85	30	96	114	78	51	52	50	71	^R61	^R49	59	^P28
Not related to vessel casualties^j	N	N	420	330	281	130	101	56	94	95	101	95	95	88	^R96	^R93	^R88	80	^P48
Recreational boating^k	739	1,360	1,418	1,466	1,360	1,116	865	924	816	800	784	829	709	821	815	734	701	681	U
Pipeline, total	N	N	30	15	19	33	9	14	15	17	22	21	53	10	20	25	38	7	11
Hazardous liquid pipeline	N	N	4	7	4	5	3	0	5	0	1	3	5	0	2	4	1	0	1
Gas pipeline	N	N	26	8	15	28	6	14	10	17	21	18	48	10	18	21	37	7	10

KEY: N = data do not exist; P = preliminary; R = revised; U = data are not available.

^aCarriers operating under 14 CFR 121, all scheduled and nonscheduled service. Since Mar. 20, 1997, 14 CFR 121 include aircraft with 10 or more seats that formerly operated under 14 CFR 135. This change makes it difficult to compare pre-1997 data for 14 CFR 121 and 14 CFR 135 with more recent data.

^bAll scheduled service operating under 14 CFR 135 (commuter air carriers). Before Mar. 20, 1997, 14 CFR 135 applied to aircraft with 30 or fewer seats. Since Mar. 20, 1997, 14 CFR 135 includes only aircraft with fewer than 10 seats. This change makes it difficult to compare pre-1997 data for 14 CFR 121 and 14 CFR 135 with more recent data.

^cNonscheduled service operating under 14 CFR 135 (on-demand air taxis).

^dAll operations other than those operating under 14 CFR 121 and 14 CFR 135.

^eLarge trucks are defined as trucks over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, including single-unit trucks and truck tractors. Light trucks are defined as trucks of 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating or less, including pickups, vans, truck-based station wagons, and utility vehicles.

^fIncludes occupants of other vehicle types and other nonmotorists. For 1960-70, the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not break out fatality data to the same level of detail as in later years, so fatalities for those years also include occupants of passenger cars, trucks, and buses.

^g Includes Amtrak. Highway-rail grade crossing fatalities data for 1970 and before is not comparable with data after 1970 due to change in reporting system. Fatalities include those resulting from train accidents, train incidents, and nontrain incidents. Highway-rail grade crossing fatalities are also counted under highway, except train occupants.

^hFatalities include those resulting from all reportable incidents, not just from accidents.

ⁱVessel-related casualties include those involving damage to vessels such as collisions or groundings. Fatalities not related to vessel casualties include deaths from falling overboard or from accidents involving onboard equipment.

^j1992-2001 data come from the Marine Safety Management Information System and 2002 data come from the Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement System. Data for prior years come from other sources and may not be directly comparable.

^kData are based on information provided by the States, the District of Columbia and the five U.S. Territories to the Coast Guard Boating Accident Report Database (BARD) system. Research on the level of underreporting of fatal accidents in the BARD, based on discrepancies between the BARD and the Coast Guard Search and Rescue Management Information System (SARMIS), found that approximately 6 percent of recreational boating fatalities are not captured by the BARD system. Adjusting the number of recreational boating fatalities included in the BARD in 2001 by 6 percent increases the total to 722.

^lU.S. air carrier figure does not include 12 persons killed aboard a commuter aircraft when it and a US Air airliner collided; commuter air carrier figure does not include 22 persons killed aboard a US Air airliner when it and a commuter aircraft collided.

^mIncludes 2 fatalities that have not been assigned to a specific vehicle type.

NOTES

Numbers may not add to totals because some fatalities are counted in more than one mode. To avoid double counting, the following adjustments have been made: most (not all) highway-rail grade-crossing fatalities have not been added because most (not all) such fatalities involve motor vehicles and, thus, are already included in highway fatalities; for transit, all commuter rail fatalities and motor-bus, trolley-bus, demand-responsive, and van-pool fatalities arising from accidents have been subtracted because they are counted as railroad, highway, or highway-rail grade-crossing fatalities. The reader cannot reproduce the total fatalities in this table by simply leaving out the number of highway-rail grade-crossing fatalitites in the sum and subtracting the above transit submodes, because in so doing, grade-crossing fatalities not involving motor vehicles would be left out (see table 2-35 on rail). An example of such a fatality is a bicyclist hit by a train at a grade crossing.

Caution must be exercised in comparing fatalities across modes because significantly different definitions are used. In particular, rail and transit fatalities include incident-related (as distinct from accident-related) fatalities, such as fatalities from falls in transit stations or railroad employee fatalities from a fire in a workshed. Equivalent fatalities for the air and highway modes (fatalities at airports not caused by moving aircraft or fatalities from accidents in automobile repair shops) are not counted toward the totals for these modes. Thus, fatalities not necessarily directly related to in service transportation are counted for the transit and rail modes, potentially overstating the risk for these modes.

SOURCES

Air:

1960: National Transportation Safety Board, Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: U.S. Air Carrier Operations, Calendar Year 1967 (Washington, DC: December 1968).

1965-70: Ibid., Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: U.S. Air Carrier Operations, Calendar Year 1975, NTSB/ARC-77/1 (Washington, DC: January 1977).

1975: Ibid., Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: U.S. Air Carrier Operations, Calendar Year 1983, NTSB/ARC-87/01 (Washington, DC: February 1987), table 18.

1980: Ibid., Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: U.S. Air Carrier Operations, Calendar Year 1981, NTSB/ARC-85/01 (Washington, DC: February 1985), tables 2 and 16.

1985-2002: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 5 as of May 5, 2003.

Commuter:

1975-80: National Transportation Safety Board, Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: U.S. Air Carrier Operations, Calendar Year 1980, NTSB/ARC-83/01 (Washington, DC: January 1983), tables 26 and 40.

1985-2002: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 8 as of May 5, 2003.

On-demand air taxi:

1975-80: National Transportation Safety Board, Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: U.S. Air Carrier Operations, Calendar Year 1981, NTSB/ARC-85/01 (Washington, DC: February 1985), table 61.

1985-2002: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 9 as of May 5, 2003.

General aviation:

1960-70: National Transportation Safety Board, Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: U.S. General Aviation, Calendar Year 1970, NTSB/ARG-74/1 (Washington, DC: April 1974), table 117.

1975-80: Ibid., Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: General Aviation, Calendar Year 1985, NTSB/ARG-87/03 (Washington, DC: October 1987), table 21.

1985-2002: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 10 as of May 5, 2003.

Highway:

1960-65: Estimated by U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from data supplied by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, and individual state accident reports (adjusted to 30-day deaths). Fatalities data prior to 1975 have been adjusted to reflect the Fatality Analysis Reporting System's definition of a fatal crash as one that involves a motor vehicle on a trafficway that results in the death of a vehicle occupant or a nonmotorist within 30 days of the crash.

1970-2000: Ibid., Traffic Safety Facts 2001, DOT HS 809 100 (Washington, DC: December 2002), table 4, available at Internet site www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSFAnn/TSF2001.pdf as of August 2003.

2001-02: Ibid., Traffic Safety Facts 2002: Overview, DOT HS 809 612 (Washington, DC: 2003), table 1, available at Internet site www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSF2002/2002ovrfacts.pdf as of August 2003.

Rail:

Highway-rail grade crossing:

1960-70: National Safety Council, Accident Facts, 1974 (Washington, DC: 1974).

1975-80: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Policy and Program Development, personal communication.

1985-90: Ibid., Rail-Highway Crossing Accident/Incident and Inventory Bulletin (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table S.

1991-2001: Ibid., Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 2001 (Washington, DC: July 2003), tables 1-1 and 8-13, available at Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety.

2002: Ibid., Preliminary data available at Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/Prelim/2002/r01.htm as of June 24, 2003.

Railroad:

1960-65: National Safety Council, Accident Facts, 1974 (Washington, DC: 1974).

1970-90: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Highway-Rail Crossing Accident/Incident and Inventory Bulletin (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table 7.

1991-2001: Ibid., Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 2001 (Washington, DC: July 2003), tables 1-1 and 8-13, available at Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety.

2002: Ibid., Preliminary data available at Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/Prelim/2002/r01.htm as of June 24, 2003.

Transit:

1990-99: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Safety Management Information Statistics 1999 (Washington, DC: 2001), p. 41.

2000-01: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, personal communications, May 1, 2003.

Water:

Vessel- and nonvessel-related:

1970-91: U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Coast Guard, Office of Investigations and Analysis, Compliance Analysis Division, (G-MOA-2), personal communication, Apr. 13, 1999.

1992-2002: U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Coast Guard, Data Administration Division (G-MRI-1), personal communication, May 28, 2003.

Recreational boating:

1960-2001: Ibid., Office of Boating Safety, Boating Statistics (Washington, DC: Annual issues), also available at Internet site http://www.uscgboating.org as of July 25, 2003.

Hazardous liquid and gas pipeline:

1970-2002: U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety, Accident and Incident Summary Statistics by Year, located at Internet site http://ops.dot.gov as of June 3, 2003.