Semi-trucks are large, commercial vehicles that weigh over 10,000 pounds or more and transport goods. These massive trucks can be called by many different names. You'll probably see quite a few of them throughout the body of this article. For example, you've probably heard us refer to them as big rigs, commercial trucks, semi-trucks, 18-wheelers, transfer trucks, or tractor-trailers.
In Georgia's overall scheme of motor vehicle-related accidents, about one out of six accidents that occur involve some type of significantly oversized "big rig" or semi-truck. But, even scarier in general, consider this fact: a semi-truck accident happens about four times per hour.
﻿In 2017 alone, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) found that of all the accidents that occurred that year, 72 percent of all fatal truck accidents could be attributed to tractor-trailer-type trucks. And remember, for 2017, there were fewer large trucks on the road than today.
At that time, tractor-trailers were well under 20% of all the big trucks on the road. So, considering this data, it can easily be construed that tractor-trailers, aka semi-trucks, are one of the most dangerous truck types on our highways and roads.
Let's take a moment to review some interesting significant semi-truck statistics you may not know. Here are a few interesting statistics about truck accidents:
Over 60 percent of all semi-truck accidents involving big rig trucks happen in rural areas.
Over 25 percent of all semi-truck accidents occur on interstate highways, and the remaining 15% happen on interstate highways in rural areas.
80+ percent of semi-truck wrecks happen during the week, while 20 to 35 percent happen at night, sometime between 6 pm and 6 am.
When considering fatality numbers, over 80% of the fatalities happened to the people in the car, not the truck.