Chapter 3. Vehicles

Statistics about the vehicles involved in police-reported motor vehicle crashes are presented in this chapter, according to six major vehicle types: Passenger Cars, Light Trucks (including pickups, vans, and utility vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less), Large Trucks (including single-unit trucks and truck tractors with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds), Motorcycles (including motorcycles, mopeds, and motorscooters), Buses (including school buses and transit buses), and Other Vehicles (including all-terrain vehicles, farm and construction equipment, and motorhomes). The tables and figures are presented for all vehicle types first, then by individual vehicle type. Below are some of the vehicle statistics you will find in this section:

• Nearly 95 percent of the 11 million vehicles involved in motor vehicle crashes in 2004 were passenger cars or light trucks.
• Large trucks accounted for 8 percent of the vehicles in fatal crashes, but only 3 percent of the vehicles involved in injury and 4 percent of the vehicles involved in property-damage-only crashes. Of the 4,862 large trucks involved in fatal crashes, 74 percent were combination trucks.
• The proportion of vehicles that rolled over in fatal crashes (20.5 percent) was 4 times as high as the proportion in injury crashes (5.0 percent) and 16 times as high as the proportion in property-damage-only crashes (1.3 percent).
• Compared with other vehicle types, utility vehicles experienced the highest rollover rates: 36.2 percent in fatal crashes, 9.6 percent in injury crashes, and 2.4 percent in property-damage-only crashes.
• Fires occurred in 0.1 percent of the vehicles involved in all traffic crashes in 2004. For fatal crashes, however, fires occurred in nearly 3 percent of the vehicles involved.
• Regardless of crash severity, the majority of vehicles in single- and two-vehicle crashes were going straight prior to the crash. The next most common vehicle maneuver differed by crash severity: negotiating a curve for fatal crashes, turning left for injury crashes, and stopped in traffic lane for property-damage-only crashes.
• Motorcycles in fatal crashes had the highest proportion of collisions with fixed objects (26.4 percent), and buses in fatal crashes had the lowest proportion (2.2 percent).