Make no mistake: A serious accident involving a tractor trailer can occur at any time and on any day of the week. But an analysis of federal accident data does show that crashes involving 18 wheelers are more likely to occur on certain days of the week and at certain times of day.
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Driver Errors
Mechanical Failures
(involving brakes, tire problems or other equipment failures)
Unsafe Road Conditions
Driver errors are a leading contributor to crashes. Driver causes include many actions such as driving too fast for conditions, following too closely, distraction, fatigue, unfamiliarity with the roadway, making illegal maneuvers and illness. Many truck drivers violate hours-of-service rules and drive when dangerously fatigued.
Truck accidents occur more often on weekdays when a greater number of tractor trailers are moving freight according to an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety analysis of U.S. Department of Transportation Fatality Analysis Reporting System data. While the number of accidents involving automobile drivers and in particular intoxicated drivers goes up on Fridays and Saturdays, commercial truck drivers are less likely to be on the road on the weekends and are far less likely than other motorists to drive intoxicated because they stand to lose their commercial driver’s license.
| Day of the Week | Large truck crashes (2011-2019) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Fatalities | ||
| Sunday | 66 | |
| Monday | 187 | |
| Tuesday | 203 | |
| Wednesday | 192 | |
| Thursday | 225 | |
| Friday | 203 | |
| Saturday | 96 | |
In 2019, accidents involving trucks were highest on Thursday, by which point in the week truck drivers may be fatigued from many hours behind the wheel and less alert to changes in traffic conditions around them. Every year since 2011 except for two, Thursday was the day with the highest number of large truck crashes in Indiana, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). Truckers may be pushing themselves to make extra miles to get home.
The clear pattern that emerges from the data is a higher number of large truck crashes on week days than weekends. From 2011 to 2018, Sunday was the day with the lowest number of large trucks involved in crashes and fatal crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Truck accidents occur most often between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. Truck accidents are least likely to occur from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. when fewer drivers are on the road.
More than half of fatal truck accidents occur on major roads other than interstates and highways. About a third occur on interstates and freeways. Major roads tend to have higher posted speed limits.
The 15 Indiana counties listed below had high fatality rates in crashes involving large trucks in 2019, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. These counties’ rates of truck accident deaths per 100,000 population ranked in the upper third nationally.
There are patterns in when accidents involving large trucks are more likely to occur. But the fact is that a serious accident can occur any time a driver is distracted or fails to remain attuned to changes in traffic conditions. When sharing the road with large trucks, remember that big rigs have limited ability to maneuver, huge blind spots, and longer stopping distances. Try to stay out of trucks’ blind spots. If a truck driver is signaling a turn, give the truck extra room to swing wide and make the turn safely. Do not cut in front of a truck and force the truck to try to stop. It can take the length of a football field for a tractor trailer driving 65 miles per hour to stop.
