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U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Table 2-1. Transportation Fatalities by Mode

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Table 2-1. Transportation Fatalities by Mode

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  1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Air                               
U.S. air carriera 499 261 146 124 1 526 39 j50 33 1 239 168 380 8 1 12
Commuter carrierb N N N 28 37 37 7 j77 21 24 25 9 14 46 0 12
On-demand air taxic N N N 69 105 76 R51 R78 68 42 63 52 63 39 45 38
General aviationd 787 1,029 1,310 1,252 1,239 956 R767 R786 857 736 730 734 632 R643 R624 631
Highway                               
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 R21,194 20,818
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 R2,294 2,472
Truck occupantse N N N 5,817 8,748 7,666 9,306 9,052 8,683 9,116 9,574 10,216 10,553 10,972 R11,447 12,001
Bus occupants N N N 53 46 57 32 31 28 18 18 33 21 18 R38 58
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 R5,228 4,906
Pedalcyclists 490 690 760 1,003 965 890 859 843 723 816 802 833 765 814 R760 750
Otherf 27,909 36,759 40,637 1,018 669 628 584 590 485 536 516 501 609 573 R540 606
Total highway 36,399 47,089 52,627 44,525 51,091 43,825 44,599 41,508 39,250 40,150 40,716 41,817 k42,065 42,013 R41,501 41,611
Railroadg                                
Highway-rail grade crossing 1,421 1,610 1,440 917 833 582 698 608 579 626 615 579 488 461 431 402
Railroad 924 923 785 575 584 454 599 586 591 653 611 567 551 602 577 530
Transith N N N N N N 339 300 273 281 320 274 264 275 286 299
Waterbornei                                
Vessel-related N N 178 243 206 131 85 30 96 110 69 46 50 46 59 44
Not related to vessel casualties N N 420 330 281 130 101 56 131 131 141 137 111 108 76 67
Recreational boating 739 1,360 1,418 1,466 1,360 1,116 865 924 816 800 784 829 709 821 R815 734
Pipeline                               
Hazardous liquid pipeline N N 4 7 4 5 3 0 5 0 1 3 5 0 R2 4
Gas pipeline N N 26 8 15 28 6 14 10 17 21 18 48 10 17 17
TOTAL fatalitiesR U U U U U U 47,348 44,307 42,059 42,838 43,589 44,563 44,808 44,472 43,876 43,866

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 Includes light and large trucks.  
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 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. Fatalties not related to vessel casualties include deaths from falling overboard or from accidents involving onboard equipment.
j 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.
k Includes 2 fatalities that have not been assigned to a specific vehicle type.

KEY: N = data do not exist; R = revised; U = data are not available.

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.
1985-99: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 5, as of April, 2000.
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.
1985-99: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 9, as of April, 2000.
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.
1985-99: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 9, as of April, 2000 (1999 data as preliminary).
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.
1985-99: Ibid., Internet site www.ntsb.gov/aviation, table 10, as of April, 2000. 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 1975have 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.
1970-97: U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Traffic Safety Facts 1997, DOT HS 808 806 (Washington, DC: November 1998), table 4.
1998-99: Ibid., Traffic Safety Facts 1998, DOT HS 808 983 (Washington, DC: October 1999), table 4, and personal communication, July 24, 2000; and National Center for Statistics and Analysis, Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) Database, personal communication, Sept. 11, 2000.
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.
1985-91: Ibid., Rail-Highway Crossing Accident/Incident and Inventory Bulletin (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table S.
1992-97: Ibid., Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 1997 (Washington, DC: September 1998), table 1-1.
1998: Ibid., Office of Safety, Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/Prelim/1998/r03.htm, as of July 23, 1999.
1999: Ibid., Office of Safety, Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/Prelim/1998/r01.htm, as of June 30, 2000.
Railroad:
1960-65: National Safety Council, Accident Facts, 1974 (Washington, DC: 1974).
1970-91: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Highway-Rail Crossing Accident/Incident and Inventory Bulletin (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table 7.
1992-97: Ibid., Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 1997 (Washington, DC: September 1998), table 1-1.
1998: Ibid., Office of Safety, Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/Prelim/1998/r03.htm, as of July 23, 1999.
1999: Ibid., Office of Safety, Internet site http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/Prelim/1998/r01.htm, as of June 30, 2000.
Transit:
1990-98: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Safety Management Information Statistics 1998 (Washington, DC: 1999), p. 42.
1999: Ibid., personal communication, Dec.6, 2000.
Water:
Vessel- and nonvessel-related:
1970-98: 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.
Recreational boating:
1960-97: Ibid., Office of Boating Safety, Boating Statistics (Washington, DC: Annual issues).
1998: Ibid., Personal communication, Oct. 4, 1999.
Hazarous liquid and gas pipeline:
1970-99: U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety,  personal communication and Internet site http://ops.dot.gov as of June 28, 2000.