KEY TAKEAWAYS
- No. 12 in the Nation, Highest-Ranked Northeastern State: New York ranks 12th among all 50 states with a crash severity score of 49.02 out of 100 and is the highest-ranked Northeastern state in the study, ahead of Maine (13th), New Hampshire (16th), and Vermont (22nd).
- 2nd-Highest Injury Rate in the Country: New York’s injury rate of 88.42% is the second-highest in the nation behind only Rhode Island (102.50%), meaning nearly 9 out of every 10 young truck driver crashes in the state produce at least one injury. The state accounts for 4.53% of all young-driver truck crash injuries nationwide.
- Over 90% of Crashes Produce Harm: More than 90% of New York’s young truck driver crashes result in either a fatality or an injury, the highest combined harm rate of any state in the top 15. Unlike most high-severity states where fatal outcomes drive the ranking, New York’s position is powered almost entirely by its injury rate.
New York’s trucking corridors funnel freight through some of the most congested and complex road networks in the country, from the dense urban grid of the five boroughs to the narrow highways that wind through the Hudson Valley and Adirondack foothills. Young drivers navigating these routes face stop-and-go traffic, tight merges, aggressive commuter patterns, and winter conditions that can turn a routine delivery into a hazardous run. When a large truck crash occurs on a crowded stretch of the Thruway or the Cross Bronx Expressway, the density of vehicles and pedestrians around the scene amplifies the injury toll. For the communities and commuters who share these roads daily, every serious truck crash disrupts lives well beyond the point of impact.
This study, conducted by Los Defensores, analyzed federal large truck crash data from the FMCSA covering 2022 to 2026, filtering for crashes caused by drivers under age 26. Each state was scored on a 100-point composite severity scale, weighting fatal outcomes at 70% and injury outcomes at 30%, to rank where young truck driver crashes produce the most devastating results.
New York State Profile
| Metric | New York | National Avg. | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Severity Score (out of 100) | 49.02 | 42.39 | 1.2x higher |
| National Severity Rank | 12th | N/A | Twelfth highest |
| Fatality Rate | 2.39% | 2.96% | 19% lower |
| Injury Rate | 88.42% | 46.79% | 1.9x higher |
| Avg. Annual Crashes | 276.4 | 226.8 | 1.2x more |
| Avg. Annual Fatalities | 6.6 | 6.4 | Comparable |
| Avg. Annual Injuries | 244.4 | 107.9 | 2.3x more |
Top 15 U.S. States With the Highest Young Truck Driver Crash Severity
| Rank | State | Severity Score | Fatal % | Injury % | Avg. Annual Crashes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | 89.02 | 7.22% | 65.00% | 72.0 |
| 2 | Idaho | 69.09 | 5.41% | 57.06% | 66.6 |
| 3 | North Dakota | 64.17 | 5.71% | 30.00% | 42.0 |
| 4 | Mississippi | 56.66 | 4.18% | 55.09% | 110.0 |
| 5 | Nevada | 56.24 | 4.17% | 54.17% | 48.0 |
| 6 | Arizona | 53.94 | 4.61% | 31.66% | 199.6 |
| 7 | Texas | 52.95 | 3.61% | 61.26% | 1,411.4 |
| 8 | Nebraska | 52.54 | 4.01% | 46.77% | 89.8 |
| 9 | Florida | 52.32 | 3.83% | 51.97% | 391.8 |
| 10 | Utah | 51.60 | 4.06% | 41.76% | 88.6 |
| 11 | Colorado | 49.24 | 4.17% | 30.24% | 148.8 |
| 12 | New York | 49.02 | 2.39% | 88.42% | 276.4 |
| 13 | Maine | 48.42 | 3.34% | 54.76% | 77.8 |
| 14 | South Carolina | 47.85 | 3.11% | 60.48% | 218.6 |
| 15 | Oklahoma | 47.34 | 3.51% | 45.60% | 245.2 |
New York holds the 12th-highest severity score at 49.02, just 0.22 points below No. 11 Colorado and 0.60 points above No. 13 Maine. Its profile is strikingly different from neighboring states in the top 15: New York’s fatality rate of 2.39% is below the national average, but its injury rate of 88.42% is by far the highest on the list.
New York vs. the 10 Lowest-Severity States
| Rank | State | Severity Score | Gap From NY (pts) | Fatal % | Injury % | Avg. Annual Crashes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | New York | 49.02 | N/A | 2.39% | 88.42% | 276.4 |
| 41 | Delaware | 32.49 | 16.53 | 1.70% | 54.55% | 35.2 |
| 42 | Rhode Island | 30.00 | 19.02 | 0.00% | 102.50% | 8.0 |
| 43 | Connecticut | 29.68 | 19.34 | 1.90% | 38.48% | 84.2 |
| 44 | Pennsylvania | 29.14 | 19.88 | 1.77% | 40.93% | 564.8 |
| 45 | New Jersey | 29.13 | 19.89 | 1.19% | 60.22% | 303.2 |
| 46 | Minnesota | 26.64 | 22.38 | 1.58% | 38.64% | 177.0 |
| 47 | Maryland | 25.06 | 23.96 | 1.07% | 50.32% | 187.6 |
| 48 | Oregon | 22.87 | 26.15 | 1.48% | 29.27% | 162.6 |
| 49 | Michigan | 22.00 | 27.02 | 1.34% | 30.86% | 493.2 |
| 50 | Alaska | 19.51 | 29.51 | 0.00% | 66.67% | 3.0 |
New York’s severity score is 1.8 times the bottom-10 average of 26.65, and its injury rate of 88.42% dwarfs most bottom-10 states despite their lower overall severity. Neighboring Northeastern states Connecticut (ranked 43rd), Pennsylvania (44th), and New Jersey (45th) all appear in the bottom 10, showing that New York’s crash severity is an outlier within its own region.
Methodology
Research by Los Defensores analyzed large truck crash data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Crash Statistics Portal for all 50 U.S. states, covering calendar years 2022 through 2026. The analysis filtered for large truck crashes involving at-fault drivers under age 26 and calculated three metrics for each state: average annual crash volume (the arithmetic mean across the five-year period), fatality percentage (average annual fatalities divided by average annual crashes), and injury percentage (average annual injuries divided by average annual crashes). These metrics were combined into a composite Large Truck Crash Severity Score on a 100-point scale using a weighted formula: a Fatal Risk Score worth up to 70 points (calculated as the state’s fatality percentage divided by the highest fatality percentage among all 50 states, multiplied by 70) plus an Injury Risk Score worth up to 30 points (calculated as the state’s injury percentage divided by the highest injury percentage among all 50 states, multiplied by 30). The 70/30 weighting reflects the greater severity of fatal outcomes relative to injury outcomes. States were ranked from highest composite score (most severe) to lowest (least severe).
Data Sources
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA): https://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/CrashStatistics
Research Dataset: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iIshVTzeg3kAfzf6lZy4TKQGfukieIB9QymjOcInPkI/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Study by: https://www.losdefensores.com/en/
About Los Defensores
Founded in 1984, Los Defensores connects members of the Latino community with independent attorneys in its network. For over four decades, the organization has worked to improve access to legal assistance in areas including workplace injuries, motor vehicle accidents, and labor law.
