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
TOTAL fatalities	U	U	U	U	U	U	^R47,347	^R44,320	^R42,032	^R42,810	^R43,553	^R44,527	^R44,798	^R44,444	^R43,909	^R44,036	44,190
Air
U.S. air carrier^a	499	261	146	124	1	526	39	^j50	33	1	239	168	380	8	1	12	92
Commuter carrier^b	N	N	N	28	37	37	^R6	^j77	21	24	25	9	14	46	0	12	5
On-demand air taxi^c	N	N	N	69	105	76	51	78	68	42	63	52	63	39	45	38	71
General aviation^d	787	1,029	1,310	1,252	1,239	956	767	^R799	^R867	^R740	730	^R735	^R636	^R631	624	^R619	594
Highway
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	^R20,862	20,492
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	^R2,483	2,862
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	11,418
Large	N	N	N	961	1,262	977	705	661	585	605	670	648	621	723	742	759	741
Bus occupants	N	N	N	53	46	57	32	31	28	18	18	33	21	18	38	^R59	22
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	^R4,939	4,739
Pedalcyclists	490	690	760	1,003	965	890	859	843	723	816	802	833	765	814	760	^R754	690
Other^f	27,909	36,759	40,637	1,018	669	628	584	590	485	536	516	501	609	573	540	^R596	857
Total highway fatalities	36,399	47,089	52,627	44,525	51,091	43,825	44,599	41,508	39,250	40,150	40,716	41,817	^k42,065	42,013	41,501	^R41,717	41,821
Railroad^g
Highway-rail grade crossing	1,421	1,610	1,440	917	833	582	698	608	579	626	615	579	488	461	431	402	425
Railroad	924	923	785	575	584	454	599	586	591	653	611	567	551	602	577	530	512
Transit^h	N	N	N	N	N	N	339	300	273	281	320	274	264	275	286	299	295
Waterborneⁱ
Vessel-related^l	N	N	178	243	206	131	85	30	96	^R114	^R78	^R51	^R52	^R50	^R71	^R57	32
Not related to vessel casualties^l	N	N	420	330	281	130	101	56	^R94	^R95	^R101	^R95	^R95	^R88	^R95	^R86	87
Recreational boating	739	1,360	1,418	1,466	1,360	1,116	865	924	816	800	784	829	709	821	815	734	701
Pipeline				15	19	33	9	14	15	17	22	21	53	10	20	25	38
Hazardous liquid pipeline	N	N	4	7	4	5	3	0	5	0	1	3	5	0	2	4	1
Gas pipeline	N	N	26	8	15	28	6	14	10	17	21	18	48	10	^R18	^R21	37

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

^a Carriers 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.

^b All 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.

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

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

^e Large 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 stationwagons, and utility vehicles.

^f Includes 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 counted under highway, except train occupants.

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

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

^j U.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.

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

^l 1992-2000 data come from the Marine Safety Management Information System. Data for prior years may not be directly comparable.

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.

1985-2000: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 5 as of May 7, 2002.

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.

1985-2000: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 9 as of May 7, 2002.

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.

1985-2000: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 9 as of May 7, 2002.

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.

1985-2000: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 10 as of May 7, 2002.

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 1999, DOT HS 809 100 (Washington, DC: December 2000), table 4, and personal communication, Nov. 28, 2001.

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.

1991-2000: Ibid., Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 2000 (Washington, DC: July 2001), tables 1-1 and 8-13.

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.

1991-2000: Ibid., Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 2000 (Washington, DC: July 2001), tables 1-1 and 8-13.

Transit:

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

2000: U.S Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, personal communications, Mar. 19, 2002.

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.

1992-2000: U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Coast Guard, Data Administration Division (G-MRI-1), personal communication, Dec. 12, 2001.

Recreational boating:

1960-2000: Ibid., Office of Boating Safety, Boating Statistics (Washington, DC: Annual issues).

Hazarous liquid and gas pipeline:

1970-2000: U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety, personal communication and Internet site http://ops.dot.gov as of July 24, 2001.