BTS | Table 2-3: Transportation Accidents (a) by Mode

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Table 2-3: Transportation Accidents^aby Mode

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	1960	1965	1970	1975	1980	1985	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
TOTAL accidents	U	U	U	U	U	U	6,517,000	^R6,167,000	6,050,000	6,155,000	6,551,000	6,752,000	6,820,000	^R6,676,000	6,387,000	6,330,000	U
Air
U.S. air carrier^b	90	83	55	37	19	21	24	26	18	23	23	36	^R37	49	50	52	57
Commuter carrier^c	N	N	N	48	38	18	15	23	23	16	10	12	11	^R16	8	13	12
On-demand air taxi^d	N	N	N	152	171	157	107	88	76	69	85	75	90	82	77	^R73	80
General aviation^e	4,793	5,196	4,712	3,995	3,590	2,739	^R2,241	^R2,197	^R2,111	^R2,063	^R2,022	^R2,056	^R1,908	^R1,845	^R1,904	^R1,906	1,836
Highway
Passenger car	N	N	N	N	N	N	5,561,000	5,178,000	^R5,042,000	^R5,040,000	^R5,401,000	5,594,000	5,599,000	5,423,000	5,146,000	4,916,000	4,926,000
Motorcycle	N	N	N	N	N	N	103,000	105,000	72,000	^R75,000	^R69,000	66,000	66,000	61,000	54,000	57,000	69,000
Truck^f
Light	N	N	N	N	N	N	2,152,000	2,200,000	2,191,000	2,407,000	2,574,000	2,750,000	2,881,000	2,901,000	2,867,000	3,080,000	3,208,000
Large	N	N	N	N	N	N	372,000	319,000	363,000	383,000	445,000	363,000	378,000	421,000	392,000	452,000	438,000
Bus	N	N	N	N	N	N	60,000	56,000	^R50,000	51,000	56,000	^R59,000	57,000	53,000	53,000	63,000	56,000
Total highway crashes^a	N	N	N	N	N	N	6,471,000	6,117,000	6,000,000	6,106,000	6,496,000	6,699,000	6,770,000	6,624,000	6,335,000	6,279,000	6,394,000
Rail
Highway-rail grade crossing^g,h	3,195	3,820	3,559	12,076	10,612	6,919	^R5,715	^R5,388	4,910	4,892	4,979	4,633	4,257	3,865	3,508	3,489	3,502
Railroad^g,I	N	N	8,095	8,041	8,205	3,275	2,879	2,658	2,359	2,611	2,504	2,459	2,443	2,397	2,575	2,768	2,983
Transit^j	N	N	N	N	N	N	58,002	46,467	36,380	30,559	29,972	25,683	25,166	24,924	23,937	^R23,310	U
Waterborne
Vessel-related	N	N	2,582	3,310	4,624	3,439	3,613	2,222	^R3,238	^R3,412	^R3,970	^R4,298	^R4,264	^R4,198	^R4,374	^R4,036	3,791
Recreational boating	2,738	3,752	3,803	6,308	5,513	6,237	6,411	6,573	6,048	6,335	6,906	8,019	8,026	8,047	8,061	^R7,931	7,740
Pipeline
Hazarous liquid pipeline	N	N	351	254	246	183	180	216	212	229	245	188	^R194	171	^R153	^R168	147
Gas pipeline	N	N	1,077	1,338	1,524	334	198	233	177	216	222	161	187	175	^R236	^R173	234

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

^a The U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration uses the term "crash" instead of accident in its highway safety data. Highway crashes often involve more than one motor vehicle, hence "total highway crashes" is smaller than the sum of the components.

^b Carriers operating under 14 CFR 121, all scheduled and nonscheduled service. Since Mar. 20, 1997, 14 CFR 121 includes only aircraft with 10 or more seats 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 years' data.

^c All scheduled service operating under 14 CFR 135. Since Mar. 20, 1997, 14 CFR 121 includes only aircraft with 10 or more seats 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 years' data.

^d Nonscheduled service operating under 14 CFR 135.

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

^f 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.

^g Includes Amtrak.

^h Includes both accidents and incidents. Data not comparable after 1970 due to change in reporting system. Most highway-rail grade crossing accidents are counted under highway.

ⁱ Train accidents only.

^j Accident figures include collisions with vehicles, objects, and people, derailments/vehicles going off the road. Accident figures do not include fires and personal casualties.

NOTES:

The motor vehicle crash data in this table come from the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstrations' General Estimates System (GES), which began operation in 1988. GES data are obtained from a nationally representative probability sample selected from all police-reported crashes. The GES sample includes only crashes where a police accident report was completed and the crash resulted in property damage, injury, or death. The resulting figures do not take into account crashes that were not reported to the police or did not result in property damage. The 1993 National Transportation Statistics (NTS) Historical Compendium and earlier editions used crash figures estimated by the National Safety Council, which used a different set of methods to arrive at its figures. Thus, the crash figures in this edition of NTS may not be comparable with those found in the Compendium and earlier editions.

Numbers may not add to totals because some accidents/crashes are counted in more than one mode. To avoid double counting, the following adjustments have been made in the total accidents row:

• most (not all) highway-rail grade-crossing injuries have not been added because most (not all) such accidents involve motor vehicles and, thus, are already included in highway crashes;

• for transit, all commuter rail accidents and motor bus, trolley bus, demand responsive, and van pool accidents have been subtracted because they are counted as railroad, highway, or highway-rail grade-crossing accidents.

Note that the reader cannot reproduce the total accidents count in this table by simply leaving out highway-rail grade-crossing accidents in the sum and subtracting the above transit submodes, because in so doing, grade-crossing accidents not involving motor vehicles would be left out (see table 2-35 on rail). An example of such an accident is a bicyclist hit by a train at a grade crossing.

SOURCES:

Air:

Air carrier:

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 as of May 8, 2002, table 5.

Commuter air carrier:

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 as of May 8, 2002, table 8.

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 as of May 8, 2002, table 9.

General aviation:

1960-70: National Transportation Safety Board, Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: 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 as of May 8, 2002, table 10.

Highway:

1990-2000: U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, Traffic Safety Facts 1999, DOT HS 809 100 (Washington, DC: December 2000), table 1, and personal communication, Dec. 18, 2001.

Rail:

Highway-rail grade crossings:

1960-70: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Policy and Program Development, Rail-Highway Grade-Crossing Accidents (Washington, DC: Annual issues).

1975-80: Ibid., 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), table 1-1.

Railroad:

1970-90: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Policy and Program Development, Accident/Incident Bulletin (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table 4.

1991-2000: Ibid., Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 2000 (Washington, DC: July 2001), table 1-1.

Transit:

1990-99: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Safety Management Information Statistics 1998 (Washington, DC: 2000), pp. 51-54.

Water:

Vessel-related:

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

1992-2000: Ibid., 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).

Hazardous liquid and gas pipeline:

1970-2000: U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety, Internet site, http://ops.dot.gov as of June 14, 2002.

Table 2-3: Transportation Accidentsaby Mode

Table 2-3: Transportation Accidents^aby Mode