August 2, 2026 | Car Accidents, Personal Injury, Truck Accidents
and 18-wheelers deliver countless goods that keep store shelves stocked, businesses running, and consumers supplied with everything from groceries to building materials. In Missouri, that role is especially pronounced. Interstates 70, 44, 55, and 35 crisscross the state, making St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield major freight hubs for trucking traffic moving across the entire Midwest.
Speed and efficiency are now central to how the trucking industry operates. Consumers expect faster delivery windows than ever, and that pressure trickles down to the drivers behind the wheel. While that demand is a key marketing point for delivery and logistics companies, it is also a significant contributing factor in truck accidents.
Key factors that continue to cause truck accidents include truck drivers speeding to meet tight deadlines, inexperienced drivers operating the truck itself, inexperienced or distracted drivers operating the passenger vehicles sharing the road with trucks, dangerous weather conditions, and truck drivers who push through fatigue during long driving periods rather than stopping to rest. Hours of service violations, improperly loaded cargo, and mechanical failures such as brake problems round out the list of causes seen most often in serious Missouri truck crashes.
A semi-truck’s sheer power and weight make it one of the most dangerous vehicles on the road. Even a collision at relatively low speed can produce devastating results for the occupants of a passenger car.
As personal injury attorneys, it is our job to help our clients receive fair compensation when they are involved in a trucking collision. Because of this, we have certain statistics and facts that we refer to when analyzing a crash site and building our case.
The data below was compiled from reports created by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
The numbers behind truck accidents have shifted since this data was last reviewed, and the trend lines tell an important story for anyone sharing the road with commercial vehicles in Missouri.
Federal hours of service rules limit how long a trucker can legally drive. Under current FMCSA regulations, property-carrying drivers may drive a maximum of 11 hours within a 14-hour on-duty window, following at least 10 consecutive hours off duty, and must take a 30-minute break after 8 hours behind the wheel.
Weekly limits cap drivers at 60 hours on duty over 7 days or 70 hours over 8 days, with a mandatory 34-hour restart required before that cycle can begin again. These limits exist specifically because driver fatigue remains one of the leading contributors to catastrophic truck crashes nationwide.
Nationally, 5,218 large trucks were involved in a fatal crash in 2024, a 3 percent decrease from 2023 but a 30 percent increase over the past ten years. The number of large trucks involved in injury crashes rose to 120,724 in 2024, up 5.4 percent from the year before and up 18 percent since 2016, and total injuries from large-truck crashes reached 161,201 in 2024, a 5 percent increase year over year. Most of that harm falls on the smaller vehicle in the collision. Occupants of other vehicles made up 72 percent of large-truck crash injuries, compared to 26 percent for truck occupants and 2 percent for non-occupants like pedestrians and cyclists. The data also shows more than half of fatal large-truck crashes happen on rural roads, about a quarter occur on interstates, and 62 percent take place during daylight hours, with October consistently ranking as the deadliest month for these crashes.
Missouri’s own numbers have moved in a positive direction most recently. MoDOT reports that Missouri saw 21 fewer commercial motor vehicle fatalities in 2025 than in 2024, bringing the fatality rate down to 1.11 per 100 million commercial vehicle miles traveled, compared to 1.29 the year before, though the total still exceeded the state’s 2025 target of 110 or fewer fatalities. MoDOT has set a long-term goal of zero commercial motor vehicle fatalities by the end of 2030. That 2025 improvement follows a rougher stretch, when MoDOT reported that Missouri recorded approximately 159 fatalities involving commercial motor vehicles in 2024, up from 137 in 2023, with the fatality rate climbing from 1.18 to 1.30 per 100 million commercial vehicle miles traveled between 2020 and 2024.
Missouri’s overall traffic fatality trend has been improving as well, with 909 total traffic fatalities in 2025, a decrease of 46 from 2024 and a 4.81 percent drop overall, and 169 fatalities recorded in the first quarter of 2026 alone, 31 fewer than the same period in 2025. Work zones remain a particular danger for truck-involved crashes on Missouri’s heavily trafficked freight corridors. In the third quarter of 2025, Missouri recorded four fatal work zone crashes on the state highway system, including one in which an unbuckled driver of a concrete truck struck a barrier and overturned, ejecting the driver.
| State | Fatal Crashes |
|---|---|
| Alabama | 85 |
| Alaska | 4 |
| Arizona | 83 |
| Arkansas | 75 |
| California | 320 |
| Colorado | 80 |
| Connecticut | 20 |
| Delaware | 13 |
| District of Columbia | 0 |
| Florida | 275 |
| Georgia | 195 |
| Hawaii | 6 |
| Idaho | 44 |
| Illinois | 126 |
| Indiana | 119 |
| Iowa | 63 |
| Kansas | 71 |
| Kentucky | 75 |
| Louisiana | 89 |
| Maine | 23 |
| Maryland | 46 |
| Massachusetts | 27 |
| Michigan | 76 |
| Minnesota | 59 |
| Mississippi | 93 |
| Missouri | 104 |
| Montana | 19 |
| Nebraska | 37 |
| Nevada | 35 |
| NewHampshire | 12 |
| New Jersey | 52 |
| New Mexico | 54 |
| New York | 112 |
| North Carolina | 138 |
| North Dakota | 21 |
| Ohio | 143 |
| Oklahoma | 120 |
| Oregon | 51 |
| Pennsylvania | 157 |
| Rhode Island | 7 |
| South Carolina | 83 |
| South Dakota | 15 |
| Tennessee | 121 |
| Texas | 556 |
| Utah | 34 |
| Vermont | 7 |
| Virginia | 88 |
| Washington | 73 |
| West Virginia | 41 |
| Wisconsin | 73 |
| Wyoming | 17 |
| Speed Limit | Number of Fatalities | Percent of Fatalities |
|---|---|---|
| 25 mph or Less | 122 | 0.029 |
| 30 - 35 mph | 281 | 0.066 |
| 40 - 45 mph | 599 | 0.141 |
| 50 - 55 mph | 1401 | 0.331 |
| 60 - 65 mph | 875 | 0.207 |
| 70 - 75 mph | 787 | 0.186 |
| 80 - 85 mph | 30 | 0.007 |
| No Statutory Limit | 49 | 0.012 |
| Year | People Injured in Truck Accidents |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 157000 |
| 1998 | 156000 |
| 1999 | 176000 |
| 2000 | 166000 |
| 2001 | 153000 |
| 2002 | 158000 |
| 2003 | 150000 |
| 2004 | 145000 |
| 2005 | 136000 |
| 2006 | 126000 |
| 2007 | 124000 |
| 2008 | 113000 |
| 2009 | 93000 |
| 2010 | 106000 |
| 2011 | 112000 |
| 2012 | 126000 |
| 2013 | 133000 |
| 2014 | 132000 |
| 2015 | 138000 |
| 2016* | 168000 |
| 2017* | 170000 |
While this is a key marketing tool for delivery services that operate in the trucking industry, it is also a key factor in truck accidents.
Semi-trucks sheer power and weight make them one of the deadliest weapons on the road. Even an accident at a slow speed can cause devastating results.
How Much Does a Semi-Truck Weigh?
A fully loaded semi-truck typically weighs around 80,000 pounds, roughly 20 to 30 times heavier than the average passenger car, which weighs closer to 4,000 pounds. That weight depends on several factors.
The average semi-truck length, including both the cab and trailer, runs between 71 and 73 feet long. The amount of cargo being hauled matters too, with a typical loaded trailer carrying between 70,000 and 80,000 pounds of freight. And the state in which the truck is operating matters, since different states permit different maximum load weights. South Dakota allows the heaviest loads of any state, permitting up to 171,000 pounds on certain non-interstate roads, while Missouri generally follows the federal standard gross vehicle weight limit of 80,000 pounds on interstate highways.
That mass has direct consequences for how a truck behaves in an emergency. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a passenger car traveling 65 miles per hour needs roughly 300 to 316 feet to come to a complete stop under good conditions, about the length of a football field. A fully loaded commercial truck traveling the same speed needs closer to 525 to 600 feet, nearly two football fields. At lower speeds the gap is still significant. At 55 miles per hour, a car stops in about 225 feet while a truck needs roughly 335 feet, about 49 percent farther. Part of that difference comes down to the brakes themselves. Most passenger vehicles use hydraulic brakes, which respond almost instantly through brake fluid, while most commercial trucks use air brakes, which require a brief buildup of air pressure before they begin slowing the vehicle. That extra second or two of brake lag, combined with tens of thousands of additional pounds of momentum, is often the difference between a near miss and a catastrophic rear-end collision.
A 2026 letter from members of the Senate Commerce Committee to FMCSA raised further concerns about the trucking industry’s safety oversight, noting that nearly 5,000 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks and buses in 2024, according to the most recent federal data available, and that FMCSA enforcement actions against motor carriers fell from about 4,000 in fiscal year 2024 to roughly 1,400 in fiscal year 2025, a 65 percent drop.
You can visit our Missouri Truck Accident Statistics for more information specific to the State of Missouri.
As truck accident attorneys in St. Louis we have dealt with many automobile accidents involving semi-trucks, 18-wheelers, and other commercial trucks. We have seen the catastrophic damages that are the result of these massive vehicles colliding with consumer vehicles. If you or a loved one has been injured in a commercial trucking accident contact us to find out your options!
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