Crash Atlas · Washington · Data study
Every large-truck crash death in Washington, 2018–2024
Seven years of fatal crashes involving a truck over 10,000 lbs, statewide: who died, in which counties, and on which roads.
What the file says
- Most of the dead were not in the truck. 384 of the 541 were in another vehicle, 45 of them on motorcycles. 75 were in the truck. 82 were walking or cycling.
- 77 people on foot or bike were struck by the truck itself: 64 pedestrians and 13 cyclists. That is 7% of every pedestrian and 14% of every cyclist killed on Washington roads over the seven years. 51 were struck by the front of the truck and 12 by its side; the side-guard study sets out the rest.
- Truck-crash deaths rose, but road deaths rose faster. 205 people died in truck crashes in 2018–2020 and 244 in 2022–2024, up 19%. All road deaths rose 38.2% between the same years, so the truck share fell from a high of 14.3% in 2019 to 10.4% in 2024.
- I-5 is the deadliest corridor: 60 deaths in 56 crashes, 15 of them pedestrians. Next come I-90 (25) and US-97 (23).
- King County has the most deaths. 99 of King County’s 940 road deaths were in a truck crash (10.5%). Among counties with ten or more truck-crash deaths, Grant County has the highest share: 40 of 156, or 25.6%.
- Seattle: 21 deaths in seven years, 8 people on foot or bike struck by the truck. The year-by-year counts, and a caution about quoting them →
people on foot or bike killed by a large truck were struck by its side or its underside, and 51 by its front. A side guard closes the open space along a truck’s side, between its wheels. What the Washington record can and cannot say about side guards →
The map
All 485 fatal large-truck crashes, every one geocoded. Filter by who died and by year. Click a point for the date, road and truck type and, where the truck struck someone on foot or bike, where on the truck. Dashed rings mark the 6 places with more than one fatal truck crash within 150 m.
… / … fatal crashes
Circle size is the number of people killed in that crash. A dashed ring marks a location where two or more separate fatal crashes happened within 150 m of each other.
Static downloads: points.csv · points.json
Year by year
People killed in Washington crashes involving a large truck, by where they were. The share column is the fraction of all Washington road deaths that year. 2024 is preliminary.
| Year | All road deaths | Truck-crash deaths | Share | In truck | Other vehicle | Motorcycle | On foot | Cyclists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 539 | 62 | 11.5% | 9 | 40 | 4 | 6 | 3 |
| 2019 | 538 | 77 | 14.3% | 6 | 49 | 7 | 15 | 0 |
| 2020 | 574 | 66 | 11.5% | 5 | 53 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| 2021 | 674 | 92 | 13.6% | 13 | 57 | 3 | 16 | 3 |
| 2022 | 743 | 87 | 11.7% | 19 | 47 | 6 | 13 | 2 |
| 2023 | 809 | 81 | 10% | 11 | 51 | 10 | 5 | 4 |
| 2024* | 730 | 76 | 10.4% | 12 | 42 | 10 | 12 | 0 |
| 2018–2024 | 4,607 | 541 | 11.7% | 75 | 339 | 45 | 69 | 13 |
* FARS 2024 is the preliminary Annual Report File and will revise when the final file is released. “On foot” counts every pedestrian killed in a truck crash, including 5 struck by another vehicle rather than by the truck.
Who died
All 541 deaths, 2018–2024, by where the person was when the crash happened.
| In another vehicle | 339 | 63% |
| On a motorcycle | 45 | 8% |
| In the truck | 75 | 14% |
| On foot, struck by the truck | 64 | 12% |
| On a bike, struck by the truck | 13 | 2% |
| On foot or bike, struck by another vehicle | 5 | 1% |
“Another vehicle” is any vehicle other than the large truck or a motorcycle: cars, light pickups, vans, buses, and parked vehicles.
By county
The 15 counties with the most deaths in large-truck crashes; 37 of Washington’s 39 counties recorded at least one. The share column is the fraction of all road deaths in that county. It runs well above the statewide 11.7% in Grant County and several smaller counties; at these counts, read each percentage with the numbers beside it.
| County | All road deaths | Truck-crash deaths | Share | On foot or bike, struck by truck |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| King County | 940 | 99 | 10.5% | 29 |
| Pierce County | 599 | 57 | 9.5% | 8 |
| Yakima County | 293 | 52 | 17.7% | 4 |
| Grant County | 156 | 40 | 25.6% | 2 |
| Spokane County | 329 | 35 | 10.6% | 6 |
| Snohomish County | 335 | 24 | 7.2% | 2 |
| Clark County | 252 | 21 | 8.3% | 6 |
| Benton County | 129 | 18 | 14% | 1 |
| Mason County | 94 | 14 | 14.9% | 0 |
| Grays Harbor County | 70 | 14 | 20% | 1 |
| Kittitas County | 67 | 13 | 19.4% | 0 |
| Thurston County | 169 | 12 | 7.1% | 3 |
| Skagit County | 117 | 12 | 10.3% | 3 |
| Lewis County | 72 | 12 | 16.7% | 2 |
| Adams County | 49 | 11 | 22.4% | 0 |
All 39 counties are in counties.json.
The corridors
Numbered routes with the most deaths in large-truck crashes. The interstates carry the largest totals, and on I-5 the dead include 15 pedestrians, most of them on foot on the freeway itself.
| Route | Crashes | Killed | On foot or bike | In the truck | Counties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I-5 | 56 | 60 | 15 | 14 | Clark County, Cowlitz County, King County, Lewis County, Pierce County, Skagit County, Snohomish County, Thurston County, Whatcom County |
| I-90 | 22 | 25 | 2 | 6 | Adams County, Grant County, King County, Kittitas County, Lincoln County, Spokane County |
| US-97 | 15 | 23 | 2 | 2 | Chelan County, Douglas County, Kittitas County, Klickitat County, Yakima County |
| US-101 | 15 | 20 | 0 | 1 | Clallam County, Grays Harbor County, Jefferson County, Mason County, Pacific County |
| US-12 | 12 | 14 | 0 | 4 | Columbia County, Garfield County, Grays Harbor County, Lewis County, Walla Walla County, Yakima County |
| I-82 | 12 | 13 | 0 | 4 | Benton County, Kittitas County, Yakima County |
| SR-167 | 10 | 11 | 2 | 3 | King County, Pierce County |
| SR-99 | 10 | 11 | 3 | 1 | King County, Pierce County, Snohomish County |
| US-395 | 8 | 11 | 0 | 1 | Benton County, Ferry County, Franklin County, Stevens County |
| US-195 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 1 | Spokane County, Whitman County |
| US-2 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 2 | Douglas County, Pend Oreille County, Snohomish County, Spokane County |
| SR-26 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | Adams County, Grant County |
Seattle
Crashes inside the city limits (FARS city code 1960), the definition our Vision Zero report card uses. 21 deaths in 20 crashes over seven years; 8 pedestrians and 1 cyclist among them.
| Year | Truck-crash deaths | On foot or bike, struck by truck |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 1 | 1 |
| 2019 | 2 | 1 |
| 2020 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | 4 | 3 |
| 2022 | 4 | 2 |
| 2023 | 4 | 0 |
| 2024* | 5 | 1 |
| 2018–2024 | 21 | 8 |
A caution about Seattle’s numbers
Our Vision Zero report card compares each city’s 2018–19 average with its 2023–24 average. For Seattle that reads as a 200% rise, and underneath it is 1.5 deaths a year becoming 4.5.
Pooled three-year blocks point the same way and are steadier to quote: 4 deaths in 2018–2020, 13 in 2022–2024. A percentage built on a single-digit base should not travel without the counts beside it.
Places where it happened more than once
6 locations recorded two or more separate fatal large-truck crashes within 150 metres of each other.
| Location | County | Fatal crashes | Killed | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US-97 & E LARUE RD | Yakima County | 3 | 6 | 2019, 2021, 2024 |
| S WAPATO RD & PROGRESSIVE RD | Yakima County | 2 | 3 | 2019, 2022 |
| SR-823 | Yakima County | 2 | 2 | 2021, 2021 |
| I-5 RAMP | King County | 2 | 2 | 2021, 2022 |
| SR-181 | King County | 2 | 2 | 2022, 2023 |
| ORVILLE RD E | Pierce County | 2 | 2 | 2022, 2024 |
Which trucks
Every large truck involved in these crashes, 526 trucks in 485 crashes, by configuration, with the number of people on foot or bike each type struck.
| Truck | Trucks involved | Struck someone on foot or bike |
|---|---|---|
| Tractor-trailer | 242 | 35 |
| Single-unit truck | 178 | 27 |
| Medium/heavy pickup | 78 | 13 |
| Tractor, no trailer | 28 | 2 |
Tractor-trailers are truck-tractors pulling one or more trailers. Medium/heavy pickups are pickups with a gross vehicle weight rating above 10,000 lbs.
Methodology
- Source. NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), National CSV downloads for 2018 through 2024, accessed 2026-09-15. nhtsa.gov. FARS is a census: every crash on a US public road in which someone died within 30 days is in it.
- Large truck. A vehicle with FARS
BODY_TYP60–64, 66, 67, 71, 72 or 78: step vans, single-unit trucks, truck-tractors, medium/heavy pickups and medium/heavy trucks of unknown configuration, all over 10,000 lbs GVWR. Our Vision Zero report card uses the range 60–69, which also takes in truck-based motorhomes (BODY_TYP65). For Seattle the two definitions give identical counts. - What counts as a death. Every person killed in a crash involving at least one large truck, wherever they were: in the truck, in another vehicle, or on foot or bike.
- Pedestrians and cyclists. From the person file on
INJ_SEV = 4. Pedestrians arePER_TYP5 plus people on a personal conveyance such as a wheelchair or skateboard, which FARS coded 8 in 2018–19 and 2022–24 and 11 to 13 in 2020–21. Cyclists arePER_TYP6 or 7. A person counts as struck by the truck when their striking-vehicle field (STR_VEH) names a large truck. - Places. Counties are keyed on the FARS
COUNTYfield, so unincorporated areas are included. Seattle is keyed onCITY = 1960, the same code the Vision Zero report card uses. - Corridors. A crash is assigned to a route when either the roadway or
the cross-street field carries an
I-,US-orSR-designation. Route numbers are normalised, since FARS files the same highway as bothSR-018andSR-18. Road names drop theCR-andMU-prefixes FARS puts on county roads and municipal streets. - Geocoding. Coordinates are the ones on the FARS record; 100% of crashes carry usable ones. Repeat locations are single-link clusters at a 150 m radius.
- Limits. FARS is fatal-only: it holds none of the serious injuries, for which WSDOT’s collision data is the source. There is no exposure measure here, so no count on this page is a rate per mile of truck travel. 2024 is the preliminary Annual Report File and will revise.
- Reproducibility. Every figure on this page is generated by one script from the unmodified FARS downloads. Nothing is typed in by hand.
Cite this study
Republish freely under CC BY 4.0. Use it in testimony, a legislative briefing or a story without asking us.
AccidentLawyerReview, "Every Large-Truck Crash Death in Washington, 2018-2024," 2026-09-15. https://accidentlawyerreview.com/research/crash-atlas/washington/large-trucks/
Need a cut we have not published, such as a legislative district, a single corridor or a county year by year? Email research@accidentlawyerreview.com. It is free and stays free.
Download the data
- points.csv: all 485 fatal large-truck crashes, one row each, with county, place, road, route, people killed by role, truck type, where on the truck any pedestrian or cyclist was struck, light condition, posted speed limit and coordinates.
- points.json: the same rows for a mapping library.
- vru_struck_by_truck.csv: one row per pedestrian or cyclist struck by a large truck.
- yoy.json · counties.json · corridors.json · hotspots.json: the tables on this page.
- summary.json: headline figures and definitions in machine-readable form.
Licensed CC BY 4.0. FARS itself is US federal public-domain data.
Update log
- 2026-09-15: first publication, FARS 2018–2024.
- Planned: refresh when NHTSA releases FARS 2025 and finalises 2024.
Related studies
- Truck side guards where on the truck 77 people on foot and bike were struck
- Vision Zero report card truck deaths in 19 US cities, Seattle included
- Northern Virginia every road death in five jurisdictions
AccidentLawyerReview is an independent public-data directory of US personal-injury law firms. We are not a law firm and do not give legal advice. This study aggregates public crash records for journalists, advocates, and residents; it does not interpret any specific legal claim.