Which states had the highest number of fatal truck accidents in 2024?

1. Federal data give national trends but not a ready 2024 “top‑state” list

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and DOT publications included in the supplied sources focus on national estimates and thematic breakdowns (for example, first‑half 2024 declines, rural vs. urban patterns), but the excerpts shown do not contain a consolidated ranked list of states by 2024 truck‑involved fatality counts; the FMCSA’s crash facts and NHTSA’s Trucks in Fatal Accidents (TIFA) are the canonical databases for state-level fatality analysis, yet the snippets here only describe those datasets rather than present a ranked 2024 state table ^{[2] [4] [5]}.

2. Trade and news outlets report declining truck‑involved fatalities in 2024

Reporting from Commercial Carrier Journal and related outlets cites NHTSA estimates showing truck‑involved fatalities and overall traffic deaths fell in early and mid‑2024—NHTSA estimated about an overall decline in motor vehicle fatalities in the first half of 2024 and noted truck‑involved fatalities were declining in some metrics—so the national context for 2024 is one of modest declines rather than big spikes ^{[1] [6]}.

3. Multiple secondary articles claim Texas, California and Florida are highest, but sourcing varies

Several non‑government articles and blogs in the collection state that Texas recorded the highest number of fatal truck crashes recently, followed by California and Florida, and give concrete numbers for recent years or 2024 projections (examples: Texas with several hundred truck deaths; Florida noted in FleetOwner reporting); however, these items are secondary or interpretive and the snippets do not all point back to the primary federal counts for 2024—so while they suggest a consistent pattern ^{[3] [7] [8]}, the provided sources do not uniformly corroborate specific 2024 rankings from an authoritative dataset.

4. Methodology and reporting caveats that affect state rankings

FMCSA and NHTSA materials warn that state‑level tallies depend on reporting systems (FARS/TIFA/SAFETYNET) and may be revised; combined fatality counts can differ from sums of individual entries when crashes involve multiple fatalities or vehicle types, and some states vary in reporting completeness—this limits confidence in any simple state ranking unless based on final, directly cited federal tables ^{[9] [10] [2]}.

5. Per‑capita vs. absolute counts change the story

Some sources point out that rural states can rank higher by rate (deaths per population or per vehicle‑miles) even when their absolute counts are lower; for example, an article notes Wyoming’s per capita truck fatality rate stands out, even while larger states like Texas record bigger raw totals—this divergence means “which states had the highest number” can yield different answers depending on whether you mean absolute counts or rates ^{[3] [7]}.

6. Recommendations for a definitive answer and next steps

To identify the exact states with the highest absolute number of fatal truck accidents in 2024, consult the finalized federal datasets (NHTSA FARS/TIFA tables or FMCSA Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts state tables) and download the 2024 state‑by‑state tables; the FMCSA and NHTSA sources referenced here are the correct primary sources to query for that ranked list ^{[4] [2] [5]}. The supplied articles and trade reporting can provide context (national trend, per‑capita outliers), but they should be corroborated with the federal tables before reporting specific state rankings for 2024 ^{[1] [6]}.

Limitations: available sources in this packet do not include a single, authoritative ranked table listing each state’s 2024 fatal truck‑involved counts; some secondary pieces assert Texas/California/Florida lead in recent years but do not supply the federal table citations in the excerpts provided ^{[3] [8] [7]}.