Table 2-3. Transportation Accidents^a by Mode

Excel | CSV

^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 Includes light and large trucks.
^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.

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

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: Dec. 1968).
1965-70: Ibid., Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: U.S. Air Carrier Operations, Calendar Year 1975, NTSB/ARC-77/1 (Washington, DC: Jan. 1977).
1975: Ibid., Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data: U.S. Air Carrier Operations, Calendar Year 1983, NTSB/ARC-87/01 (Washington, DC: Feb. 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.
1985-97: Ibid., Press release, SB-99-06, Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 5, as of Mar. 2, 1999.
1998-99: Ibid., personal communication, March 28, 2000. 
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.
1985-97: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 8, as of Mar. 2, 1999.
1998-99: Ibid., personal communication, March 28, 2000. 
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: Feb. 1985), table 61.
1985-97: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 9, as of Mar. 2, 1999.
1998-99: Ibid., personal communication, March 28, 2000. 
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.
1985-97: Ibid., Press release, SB-99-06, Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 10, Mar. 2, 1999.
1998-99: Ibid., personal communication, March 28, 2000. 
Highway:
1990-99: U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, Traffic Safety Facts 1998, DOT HS 808 983(Washington, DC: October 1999), table 1, and personal communication, Sept.11, 2000.
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.
1985-91: Ibid., Rail-Highway Crossing Accident/Incident and Inventory Bulletin (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table S.
1992-97: Ibid., Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 1997 (Washington, DC: September 1998), table 1-1.
1999: Ibid., Office of Safety, Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/Prelim/1998/r01.htm, as of July 28, 2000.
Railroad:
1970-91: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Policy and Program Development, Accident/Incident Bulletin (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table 4.
1992-98: Ibid., Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 1998 (Washington, DC: July 1999), table 1-1.
1999: Ibid., Office of Safety, Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/Prelim/1999/r01.htm, as of June 28, 2000.
Transit:
1990-98: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Safety Management Information Statistics 1998 (Washington, DC: 2000), p. 53-54.
1999: Ibid., personal communication, Dec. 6, 2000. 
Water:
Vessel-related:
1970-98: U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Coast Guard, Office of Investigations and Analysis, Compliance Analysis Division, personal communication, Apr. 13, 1999.
Recreational boating:
1960-98: Ibid., Office of Boating Safety, Boating Statistics (Washington, DC: Annual issues).
Hazardous liquid and gas pipeline:
1970-99: U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety, Internet site, http://ops.dot.gov as of June 28, 2000.