Pennsylvania Fatal Bus Accident Statistics
A total of 160 fatalities involving large vehicles were reported in Pennsylvania in 2015. This number is steady with previous years. In 2014, there were 162, in 2013, there were 155 and 2012 reported 166. The number of deaths for 2015 resulted from 138 fatal crashes, which was a slight drop from 146 in 2014 and 144 in 2013. This information comes from a report created by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
There were 167 large vehicles involved in these accidents with 34 of them being single-vehicle accidents. According to national statistics, most accidents with large vehicles such as trucks and buses occur with one other vehicle.
Pennsylvania is slightly below the national average for rate of deaths per one million people. The state has a rate of 10.78 while the national average is 11.19. This number is down from 2010 which was 11.97. While the population has increased slightly, the number of fatalities has gone down significantly.
A bus is defined as a vehicle that carries eight or more passengers in addition to the driver. This includes school buses, intercity, and transport buses as well as van-buses. The number of buses on the road has increased significantly from just over 462,000 in 1975 to more than 872,000 in 2014. However, the rate of fatalities per million miles driven has dropped from 5.75 to 1.77 for the same period.
While the majority of counties in Pennsylvania have reported at least one fatality involving large vehicles for 2015, only four exceeded five. Three of them are located in the eastern portion of the state, and one is in the southwest part.
On the western side, Allegheny County had seven fatalities for 2015. On the eastern part of the state, Luzerne County reported six, Monroe County had seven, and Lehigh County topped the list with 11.