Rhode Island Fatal Bus Accident Statistics
While Rhode Island has a population of over one million people, it reported just one fatality for 2015, which involved a large vehicle. This number is the lowest since 2011 when there was also just one reported. Two large vehicles were involved in the one accident, which is consistent with the national average of two vehicles in most large truck and bus crashes. This information comes from a report created by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
Rhode Island has a rate of 0.95 fatalities per one million people, which is down from 1.90 reported in 2010. This rate is well below the national average of 11.19.
Even though more buses are on the road today, there are fewer fatal accidents. The same study showed that in 1975, more than 462,000 buses were registered. That number almost doubled by 2014 when there were over 872,000 registered. At the same time, the number of fatalities per million miles driven went down from 5.75 to 1.77.
A bus is defined in this report as any vehicle that can carry eight or more passengers along with a driver. This includes school buses, intercity buses and transport buses along with a newer category of van-buses. Nationwide, the majority of large vehicle accidents occur during weekdays on rural roads with the vehicle traveling between 50 and 55 mph. Very few happen in work zones, and most occur in clear weather and on dry pavement. The majority of them do not occur in any kind of intersection or other meeting points, such as a roundabout or L-intersection.
Providence Country was the only county in Rhode Island to record a large-vehicle fatality. It was also the county for the fatal accidents in 2014 and some of those for the years prior.