Georgia Fatal Bus Accident Statistics
Georgia reported a total of 182 deaths from 161 traffic crashes involving large trucks/buses in 2015. This number is up significantly from 2014 when there was a total of 128 crashes with 155 fatalities. A total of 178 large vehicles were involved and 27 accidents were single-vehicle accidents. The other 134 crashes involved multiple vehicles. This information is from a report by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). According to the report, most multiple-vehicle accidents involving buses and large trucks involve two vehicles nationwide.
A bus is defined as a vehicle that carries nine or more passengers, counting the driver. This includes school buses, intercity transit buses, van-buses and other vehicles. Nationwide, school buses account for the majority of accidents with transit buses coming in second and intercity buses in third place. Statistics show that almost all accidents happen in non-work zones with 60 percent occurring on rural roads. The majority of accidents happen during the day on weekdays in clear weather and on dry pavement.
Statistics also show that bus registration has increased from 462,156 in 1975 to 872,027 in 2014 while the rate of fatalities per million miles driven has gone down from 5.75 to 1.77. Georgia has a rate of 15.76 fatalities per one million people, which is above the national average of 11.19. It is also up from the 14.24 reported for 2010.
The majority of accidents which occurred in Georgia happened in the northern central portion of the state and the southeastern part. Counties like Chatham reported nine fatalities while Bryan County had six. Fulton County reported seven, which was down from the previous year while DeKalb County had an increase to ten for the year. Gwinnett County recorded eight for 2015, which was up by more than double from the three reported in 2014.