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Table 2-1: Transportation Fatalities by Mode
Excel | CSV
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 carriera |
499 |
261 |
146 |
124 |
1 |
526 |
39 |
l 50 |
33 |
1 |
239 |
168 |
380 |
8 |
1 |
12 |
92 |
531 |
P0 |
Commuter carrierb |
N |
N |
N |
28 |
37 |
37 |
6 |
l 77 |
21 |
24 |
25 |
9 |
14 |
46 |
0 |
12 |
5 |
13 |
P0 |
On-demand air taxic |
N |
N |
N |
69 |
105 |
76 |
51 |
78 |
68 |
42 |
63 |
52 |
63 |
39 |
45 |
38 |
71 |
60 |
33 |
General aviationd |
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 occupantse, 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 occupantse, 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 |
Otherf |
27,909 |
36,759 |
40,637 |
1,018 |
669 |
628 |
584 |
590 |
485 |
536 |
516 |
501 |
609 |
573 |
540 |
596 |
591 |
R581 |
774 |
Railroadg
| 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 casualtiesj |
N |
N |
420 |
330 |
281 |
130 |
101 |
56 |
94 |
95 |
101 |
95 |
95 |
88 |
R96 |
R93 |
R88 |
80 |
P48 |
Recreational boatingk |
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.
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 station wagons, 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 also 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. Fatalities not related to vessel casualties
include deaths from falling overboard or from accidents involving onboard equipment.
j 1992-2001 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.
k Data 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.
l 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.
m Includes 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.
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