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Oct 1, 2006 12:00 PM

A new report on 2005 highway crashes issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows a small decline in fatalities from large-truck crashes and a significant reduction in the number of people injured in large-truck crashes, particularly among non-occupants.

NHTSA figures show the number of fatalities from truck-involved crashes declined to 5,212 from 5,235 in 2005. The number of people injured in large-truck crashes decreased 1.7 percent to 114,000 — a reduction of 2,000 injuries from 2004. According to the agency, the total number of highway fatalities involving all types of vehicles rose 1.4 percent to 43,443 in 2005 from 42,836 a year earlier.

American Trucking Associations data indicate that truck vehicle-miles-traveled figures were relatively flat in 2005, mirroring the overall trend for miles traveled by all vehicles, as reported by NHTSA. Vehicle-miles-traveled are used to determine crash rates for all vehicles.