Crashes Involving Trucks Carrying Hazardous Materials

Every day there are more than 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials (hazmat) in trucks—usually flammable liquids, such as gasoline, or flammable gas. About 200 hazmat trucks a year are involved in fatal crashes and 5,000 in nonfatal crashes. Although these numbers are small relative to the totals of almost 5,000 trucks involved in fatal crashes and 400,000 involved in nonfatal crashes annually, the potential for human injury and property damage in hazmat crashes is much greater. This Analysis Brief provides data on trucks involved in fatal and nonfatal crashes that were carrying hazmat, including: truck type, materials being transported, crash characteristics, hazmat spillage or release, and number of deaths and injuries, including those caused by exposure to hazmat in crashes. Comparisons are made between hazmat-carrying trucks involved in fatal crashes and trucks in fatal crashes that were not transporting hazardous materials.