From 2013 to 2022 (the most recent 10-year time period for which data is available) there were a total of 526,135 vehicles involved in 344,451 fatal crashes in the U.S. Using data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), we analyzed which types of vehicles were in the most accidents.
How vehicle type is categorized
We found how many vehicles of different types were involved in fatal crashes by analyzing data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which is a database maintained by the NHTSA.
Here’s how FARS defines different vehicle types:
Passenger car: Motor vehicles used primarily for carrying passengers, including convertibles, sedans, and station wagons
Light Truck: Trucks of 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating or less, including pickups, vans, truck-based station wagons, and SUVs.
Motorcycle: A two- or three-wheeled motor vehicle designed to transport one or two people, including motor scooters, minibikes, and mopeds.
Large Truck: Trucks over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, including single-unit trucks and truck tractors.
Other/Unknown: Consists of the following types of vehicles: large limousines (more than four side doors or stretched chassis, three-wheel automobile, van-based motorhome, light-truck-based motorhome (chassis mounted), large-truck-based motorhome, ATV (including dune/swamp buggy) and all-terrain cycle, snowmobile, farm equipment other than trucks, construction equipment other than trucks (including graders) other type vehicles (including go-cart, fork lift, city street sweeper.
Bus: Large motor vehicles used to carry more than ten passengers, including school buses, inter-city buses, and transit buses.
Fatal car accidents by vehicle type
The total number of vehicles involved in fatal accidents increased by 34.1% from 2013 to 2022 from 45,101 to 60,501. During this time the number of licensed drivers on the roads increased by about 11%.
At the end of this 10-year period, there were 106.6% more SUVs involved in fatal crashes than at the start of it, the largest increase of any type of vehicle.
It’s even larger if you group SUVs and pickup trucks together: 9,044 more of these vehicles were involved in fatal crashes in 2022 than in 2013 — an increase of 62%.
While the vast majority of vehicle crashes over this period involved passenger cars, the number of passenger cars involved in fatal crashes rose by just 11.7%.
Vehicle type | Total involved in fatal crashes | 10-year change |
|---|---|---|
Passenger Car | 198,976 | +11.7% |
SUV | 96,982 | +106.6% |
Pickup trucks | 87,621 | +22.4% |
Motorcycle | 54,219 | +32.5% |
Large Truck | 47,445 | +48.9% |
Light Truck - Van | 21,228 | -3.8% |
Other/Unknown | 16,333 | +84.3% |
Bus | 2,305 | -24.5% |
Light Truck - Other | 1,026 | -84.7% |
Sorted by the number of total crashes per vehicle.
Accidents by vehicle type in every state
In total, 37.8% of the vehicles involved in fatal crashes across the U.S. were passenger cars. But in Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming, SUVs were involved in the highest number of fatal crashes.
Total number of fatal accidents | Vehicle type involved in the most accidents | Percent involved in a fatal accident | |
|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | 12,777 | Passenger car | 39.3% |
Alaska | 959 | SUV | 25.3% |
Arizona | 13,970 | Passenger car | 34.4% |
Arkansas | 7,783 | Passenger car | 30.8% |
California | 52,803 | Passenger car | 44.3% |
Colorado | 8,704 | Passenger car | 30.5% |
Connecticut | 4,074 | Passenger car | 46.1% |
Delaware | 1,816 | Passenger car | 43.1% |
District of Columbia | 397 | Passenger car | 47.4% |
Florida | 45,138 | Passenger car | 40.5% |
Georgia | 21,706 | Passenger car | 39.2% |
Hawaii | 1,384 | Passenger car | 29.3% |
Idaho | 3,055 | Passenger car | 29.2% |
Illinois | 15,498 | Passenger car | 40.6% |
Indiana | 12,399 | Passenger car | 36.2% |
Iowa | 4,652 | Passenger car | 30.6% |
Kansas | 5,482 | Passenger car | 32.1% |
Kentucky | 10,521 | Passenger car | 37.5% |
Louisiana | 10,964 | Passenger car | 34.5% |
Maine | 2,039 | Passenger car | 33.4% |
Maryland | 7,581 | Passenger car | 44.9% |
Massachusetts | 4,947 | Passenger car | 44.1% |
Michigan | 14,880 | Passenger car | 36.9% |
Minnesota | 5,718 | Passenger car | 34.1% |
Mississippi | 8,973 | Passenger car | 38.9% |
Missouri | 12,788 | Passenger car | 37.3% |
Montana | 2,419 | SUV | 25.8% |
Nebraska | 3,257 | Passenger car | 30.8% |
Nevada | 4,711 | Passenger car | 37.6% |
New Hampshire | 1,592 | Passenger car | 39.9% |
New Jersey | 8,385 | Passenger car | 43.8% |
New Mexico | 5,228 | Passenger car | 30.4% |
New York | 14,476 | Passenger car | 39.6% |
North Carolina | 20,483 | Passenger car | 41.1% |
North Dakota | 1,550 | SUV | 26.3% |
Ohio | 16,714 | Passenger car | 39.7% |
Oklahoma | 9,522 | Passenger car | 30.6% |
Oregon | 6,424 | Passenger car | 34.5% |
Pennsylvania | 16,793 | Passenger car | 39.5% |
Rhode Island | 791 | Passenger car | 46.0% |
South Carolina | 13,882 | Passenger car | 38.5% |
South Dakota | 1,673 | Passenger car | 26.7% |
Tennessee | 15,718 | Passenger car | 38.5% |
Texas | 53,909 | Passenger car | 32.8% |
Utah | 3,950 | Passenger car | 35.2% |
Vermont | 834 | Passenger car | 38.2% |
Virginia | 11,448 | Passenger car | 40.4% |
Washington | 7,950 | Passenger car | 38.2% |
West Virginia | 3,769 | Passenger car | 30.7% |
Wisconsin | 8,064 | Passenger car | 36.8% |
Wyoming | 1,585 | SUV | 25.1% |
Pedestrian accidents by vehicle type
We found that 70,119 vehicles were involved in fatal crashes with pedestrians from 2013 to 2022. There were almost 59% more vehicles involved in crashes with pedestrians in 2022 than 10 years earlier.
The number of SUVs involved in fatal crashes with pedestrians grew by 142.8% over that period, the most of any type of car. Together 93% more SUVs and pickup trucks were involved in fatal crashes with pedestrians.
Vehicle type | Fatal crashes involving a pedestrian | Percent of this vehicle’s fatal crashes that involved a pedestrian | 10-year change |
|---|---|---|---|
Passenger Car | 28,317 | 14.2% | +33.7% |
SUVs | 14,395 | 14.8% | +142.8% |
Pickup trucks | 11,166 | 12.7% | +43.6% |
Other/Unknown | 6,929 | 42.4% | +115.7% |
Large Truck | 4,508 | 9.5% | +50.8% |
Light Truck - Van | 3,449 | 16.2% | -0.9% |
Bus | 585 | 25.4% | -33.3% |
Motorcycle | 519 | 1.0% | +57.1% |
Light Truck - Other | 251 | 24.5% | -90.5% |
High-speed crashes by vehicle type
By percentage, most of the vehicles involved in speed-related fatal crashes were motorcycles. Of the 54,219 fatal crashes involving motorcycles, one third of those were speed-related.
Fatal car accidents involving SUVs were less likely to be speed-related fatal crashes (just 15.4%), but the number of these vehicles involved in fatal crashes was still nearly 75% higher in 2022 than it was 10 years earlier.
Vehicle type | Fatal crashes involving speeding | Percent of this vehicle’s fatal crashes that involved speeding | 10-year change |
|---|---|---|---|
Passenger Car | 40,283 | 20.2% | +15.8% |
Motorcycle | 18,066 | 33.3% | +34.3% |
SUVs | 14,977 | 15.4% | +73.4% |
Pickup trucks | 14,209 | 16.2% | +2.9% |
Large Truck | 3,377 | 7.1% | +16.7% |
Other/Unknown | 2,182 | 13.4% | +34.3% |
Light Truck - Van | 2,148 | 10.1% | -22.4% |
Light Truck - Other | 135 | 13.2% | -85.7% |
Bus | 66 | 2.9% | -60.0% |
Drunk-driving accidents by vehicle type
From 2013 to 2022 there were over 150,000 vehicles in fatal crashes involving a drunk driver.
Vehicle type | Fatal crashes involving a drunk driver | Percent of this vehicle’s fatal crashes that involved a drunk driver | 10-year change |
|---|---|---|---|
Passenger Car | 60,888 | 30.6% | +26.8% |
SUVs | 27,369 | 28.2% | +119.8% |
Pickup trucks | 26,290 | 30.0% | +30.2% |
Motorcycle | 17,800 | 32.8% | +43.7% |
Large Truck | 7,250 | 15.3% | +93.3% |
Other/Unknown | 6,001 | 36.7% | +76.5% |
Light Truck - Van | 4,574 | 21.5% | +8.7% |
Bus | 398 | 17.3% | -22.0% |
Light Truck - Other | 262 | 25.5% | -82.6% |
Vehicles involved in rollover crashes
Just 15.4% of fatal crashes involved rollovers — although that was 12.5% more than in 2013. Out of all the fatal accidents involving pickup trucks and SUVs, 22.7% of them were rollovers, the highest percentage of any type of car. But there was very little change in the number of pickups involved in rollovers during the 10-year period our statistics cover.
Vehicle type | Total involved in rollover crashes | Percent of this type of vehicle involved in rollover crashes | 10-year change |
|---|---|---|---|
Pickup trucks | 19,928 | 22.7% | +0.5% |
SUVs | 21,977 | 22.7% | +38.0% |
Light Truck - Other | 213 | 20.8% | -76.9% |
Other/Unknown | 3,125 | 19.1% | +57.9% |
Light Truck - Van | 2,871 | 13.5% | -22.2% |
Passenger Car | 26,367 | 13.3% | -3.2% |
Large Truck | 6,057 | 12.8% | +44.0% |
Bus | 92 | 4.0% | -64.3% |
Motorcycle | 185 | 0.3% | +425.0% |
How vehicle type affects your car insurance
The type of vehicle you drive can affect your car insurance rates. If you have a new-model car with a lot of high-tech parts, you may pay more for car insurance than someone with a basic or older car, since it will cost more to fix your vehicle if it’s damaged (this is assuming you have full-coverage car insurance).
Size can affect your insurance rates, too. Motorcycle insurance costs less than insurance for other vehicles because they’re less likely to cause a lot of property damage in a crash.
→ Read more about the cost of car insurance by make and model
