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5,472 People Died in Large Truck Crashes in 2023. The Data Tells Us Why. And It Is Not the Story Being Told on Social Media.

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Let’s start with what is not in dispute. In 2023, 5,472 people were killed in traffic crashes involving large trucks, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System — the most reliable national crash database that exists. Seventy percent of those people — 3,837 of them — were not in the truck. They were in the other vehicle. They were pedestria...
The strongest version of this narrative is its reliance on federal data to challenge politically charged claims about truck safety. It effectively highlights systemic issues—driver behavior, mechanical failures, and regulatory gaps—while questioning whether the focus on non-domiciled CDL holders is justified by the available evidence. The piece deserves credit for centering the conversation on data rather than anecdotal or emotionally driven arguments. However, the analysis also reveals patterns...