2026 Texas 18-Wheeler Crash Data Report

2026 Report — Key Findings

• •Texas recorded 38,533 CMV-involved crashes in 2025.
• •528 people were killed in CMV-involved crashes in 2025, approximately 13.2% fewer than the 608 recorded in 2024 (Texas Settlement Calculator analysis of TxDOT 2024 and 2025 data).
• •Over the five years from 2021 to 2025, fatalities declined from 706 to 528 — approximately 25.2% lower (Texas Settlement Calculator analysis of TxDOT 2021 and 2025 data).
• •Suspected serious-injury crashes remained nearly unchanged: 1,267 in 2025 compared with 1,261 in 2024.
• •Harris County recorded 5,913 CMV-involved crashes in 2025, the highest raw county crash total in Texas.
• •The four counties with the most reported CMV crashes — Harris, Dallas, Bexar, and Tarrant — together accounted for approximately 37.5% of the statewide total (Texas Settlement Calculator analysis of TxDOT 2025 county and statewide data). This is a concentration of raw crash counts, not a measure of relative danger or risk.

County rankings are based on raw TxDOT CMV crash counts. They are not population-, traffic-, or vehicle-miles-traveled-adjusted crash rates and should not be interpreted as rankings of the "most dangerous" Texas counties.

If you were involved in one of these crashes, review the seven steps to take after a Texas 18-wheeler accident, including how to identify the carrier and preserve electronic evidence.

2025 Compared with 2024

The 2026 report analyzes calendar-year 2025 data. Changes below compare the latest completed TxDOT year with calendar-year 2024.

Percentages are Texas Settlement Calculator calculations from cited TxDOT annual totals, rounded to one decimal place. Changes do not establish causation.

Texas Commercial Truck Accident Statistics: Executive Summary

Texas reported 38,533 commercial-motor-vehicle-involved crashes during 2025.

• 469fatal crashes
• 528fatalities
• 1,267suspected serious-injury crashes
• 1,611suspected serious injuries
• 4,522suspected minor-injury crashes
• 6,576suspected minor injuries
• 4,339possible-injury crashes
• 7,056possible injuries
• 27,587non-injury crashes
• 349crashes categorized as unknown severity

The term "commercial motor vehicle" is the TxDOT dataset category and can include commercial vehicles other than tractor-trailers. We use "18-wheeler" in consumer-facing language, but the statistics above reflect all CMV-involved crashes reported by TxDOT, not exclusively 18-wheeler crashes.

Texas CMV Crash Trend (2021–2025)

Where Did Texas Record the Most Commercial Vehicle Crashes?

Harris County recorded substantially more CMV-involved crashes than any other Texas county in 2025, followed by Dallas, Bexar and Tarrant counties.

These are the counties with the most reported CMV crashes. Crash count alone is not a danger rate — it does not account for vehicle miles traveled, population, or exposure data. We do not describe these as "the most dangerous counties" because no rate-based analysis has been performed.

How Did the Highest-Count Counties Change?

This comparison follows the ten counties with the highest raw CMV crash counts in 2025 and shows each county's corresponding 2024 total. It is a fixed 2025 top-ten comparison—not a ranking of the largest percentage increases statewide.

Texas Settlement Calculator calculations from the cited TxDOT 2024 and 2025 CMV county reports. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. These raw counts are not adjusted for population, commercial traffic, vehicle miles traveled, or roadway exposure; they do not establish relative risk, fault, or causation.

Selected Texas Market-Area Ranking

This table sums only the named counties available in this report dataset. It is not a complete metropolitan statistical area total or an exposure-adjusted danger ranking.

County-by-County CMV Crash Data

All county figures on this page come from the TxDOT 2025 Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) Involved Crashes and Injuries by County report linked in the Sources and Methodology section below. County values are raw crash counts reported by TxDOT.

Additional Texas County CMV Crash Data

Federal Commercial-Truck Data

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) maintains a separate crash-statistics database through its Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS). The figures in this report come from TxDOT, not FMCSA, and the two datasets are not interchangeable.

• •The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration maintains a separate crash-statistics database through its Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS).
• •TxDOT and FMCSA datasets are not interchangeable. Different inclusion and reporting rules may cause the totals to differ.
• •FMCSA expressly states that recent MCMIS crash data are preliminary.
• •FMCSA states its MCMIS data are considered preliminary for 22 months to allow changes as additional data are reported.
• •For these reasons, TxDOT 2025 completed annual Texas statistics are the primary numbers used in this report. FMCSA should be treated as supplemental federal context.

This report does not mix an FMCSA total with a TxDOT total in the same chart. TxDOT and FMCSA datasets are labeled independently wherever they appear.

Why Commercial Truck Claims Can Be Different

Commercial truck crashes can involve issues not always present in ordinary passenger-vehicle crashes. The following factors may be relevant in a commercial-trucking claim. This is informational, not a legal promise or guarantee of any outcome.

• •Commercial insurance policies that are typically larger than passenger-vehicle coverage
• •Employer and motor-carrier involvement beyond the individual driver
• •Multiple potentially responsible parties — driver, carrier, shipper, broker, loader, maintenance contractor, or parts manufacturer
• •Driver qualification records, including employment history, driving record, and drug-test results
• •Hours-of-service information and electronic logging-device (ELD) data
• •Vehicle maintenance and inspection records
• •Onboard and electronic data, including black-box / event data recorder (EDR) information
• •Dash-camera or surveillance evidence
• •Cargo and loading issues, where relevant
• •FMCSA compliance issues, where relevant

A violation of a federal or state regulation does not automatically establish liability, and commercial-truck claims do not guarantee larger settlements. Every case depends on its specific facts, evidence, and applicable law.

What These Statistics Do Not Tell You

Crash statistics cannot determine what an individual personal-injury claim is worth.

Claim value can vary based on:

• •Liability — who was at fault and whether fault is clear or disputed
• •Injury severity — the specific type and seriousness of your injuries
• •Medical treatment — the scope and continuity of your treatment
• •Duration and recovery — how long treatment lasted and whether you have recovered
• •Past economic losses — medical bills and lost wages
• •Future damages — future medical needs or earning-capacity impact, where supported by evidence
• •Insurance availability — the coverage that is actually available to compensate you
• •Multiple responsible parties — whether more than one party or company may be liable
• •Evidence — the strength of the documentation supporting your claim
• •Jurisdiction — the county and court where your claim would be filed
• •Other case-specific facts that no dataset can capture

This report does not publish an "average Texas 18-wheeler settlement" or median settlement numbers. Government crash statistics do not establish settlement value. For a personalized preliminary claim range based on the facts of your case, use the free calculator linked below.

Quotable Findings

These concise findings may be quoted with the attribution shown below and a link to this report.

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Related Texas Trucking Resources

Download the Research Data

The statewide trend and county-level data used in this report are available as a downloadable CSV file for researchers, journalists, and the public. The file documents the publisher, underlying TxDOT source, relevant data years, and compilation date.

Research Transparency

Texas Settlement Calculator compiled and analyzed publicly available Texas crash statistics for this report. The underlying crash statistics are attributed to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Any calculated percentages, rankings, or comparisons produced by Texas Settlement Calculator are identified as such on this page. This report may be updated when authoritative source data changes.

Research & Data Analysis: Texas Settlement Calculator

Corrections

If you identify a potential error in this report or its underlying calculations, please contact Texas Settlement Calculator so the data can be reviewed against the cited TxDOT source.

Contact: privacy@texassettlementcalculator.com

Research compiled by Texas Settlement Calculator from publicly available government crash statistics.

TexasSettlementCalculator.com is an independent informational and advertising platform. It is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

Independent-publication disclosure: This independent report is not affiliated with, sponsored by, approved by, or endorsed by the Texas Department of Transportation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or any other governmental agency. TxDOT and FMCSA are identified solely as sources of underlying public data.