Between 2020 and 2024, 669 people died in 601 fatal crashes in South Carolina that involved at least one large truck. Those crashes were 12.0% of the 5,019 fatal crashes recorded in the state over the five years. Most of the people killed were not in the truck, and most of the crashes happened on rural roads.
This report counts every truck-involved fatal crash in South Carolina in the federal government’s crash census for those years. The crash-level data file and the analysis code are published with it, so every figure below can be checked.
A steady share, with one year to watch
Truck-involved crashes made up between 11.4% and 13.3% of South Carolina’s fatal crashes in every year from 2020 to 2024. The highest share was the most recent year: in 2024 there were 126 truck-involved fatal crashes, killing 141 people, in a year when the state recorded 948 fatal crashes in total, its lowest of the five.
That 2024 figure needs two cautions. The rise came from trucks other than tractor-trailers: crashes involving a truck-tractor fell to 56, the lowest of the five years. And 2024 is the newest annual file, which may be revised as cases are completed. One year is not a trend.
86% of those killed were outside the truck
Of the 669 deaths, 572 were people who were not in a large truck: 503 were in other vehicles, 59 were pedestrians and 10 were cyclists. The remaining 97 deaths, 14%, were occupants of the truck itself.
The pattern holds when the count is restricted to tractor-trailers. In the 319 fatal crashes involving a truck-tractor, 86% of the 359 people killed were outside the truck.
Rural roads and interstates
64% of truck-involved fatal crashes in South Carolina, 384 of 601, happened in rural areas, against 53% of all fatal crashes in the state. On rural roads, 14% of fatal crashes involved a large truck; on urban roads, 9%.
Interstates accounted for 10% of South Carolina’s fatal crashes but 26% of its truck-involved fatal crashes: 157 crashes. On an interstate, 30% of fatal crashes involved a large truck, against 10% on US and state routes.
| Interstate | Truck-involved fatal crashes | Deaths | All fatal crashes | Truck share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I-26 | 39 | 51 | 146 | 27% |
| I-95 | 38 | 46 | 107 | 36% |
| I-77 | 26 | 26 | 79 | 33% |
| I-20 | 24 | 27 | 80 | 30% |
| I-85 | 22 | 28 | 65 | 34% |
I-26 recorded the most deaths, 51. I-95 had the highest truck share of any South Carolina interstate with at least 20 fatal crashes: a large truck was involved in 36% of them. The counts on each interstate are small enough that a few crashes either way would move these percentages.
Most truck-involved fatal crashes, 435 of them, happened on US and state routes rather than interstates. Among those roads, US 17, the coastal highway through Charleston, recorded the most: 28 truck-involved fatal crashes, not counting its alternate, bypass and business routes.
Daytime and weekdays
Truck-involved fatal crashes follow the working week. 64% happened between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., against 39% of fatal crashes that involved no large truck. 85% happened Monday to Friday, against 63% of other fatal crashes, which peak in the evening and on Saturdays and Sundays.
That difference is what freight traffic would predict. It is a description of when these crashes occur, not a finding about why.
Where they happened
All 46 South Carolina counties recorded at least one truck-involved fatal crash. The ten with the most accounted for 47% of the total:
| County | Truck-involved fatal crashes | Deaths | All fatal crashes | Truck share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenville | 40 | 42 | 413 | 10% |
| Spartanburg | 36 | 41 | 317 | 11% |
| Richland | 30 | 34 | 301 | 10% |
| Horry | 30 | 32 | 328 | 9% |
| Orangeburg | 27 | 34 | 190 | 14% |
| Lexington | 27 | 30 | 233 | 12% |
| Berkeley | 25 | 28 | 222 | 11% |
| Florence | 25 | 28 | 157 | 16% |
| Charleston | 23 | 26 | 322 | 7% |
| Dorchester | 22 | 27 | 111 | 20% |
Taken together, the three Charleston-area counties, Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester, recorded 70 truck-involved fatal crashes and 81 deaths. Within that group the pattern differs sharply: in Dorchester County, which I-26 crosses, 20% of fatal crashes involved a large truck; in Charleston County, 7%.
Work zones
22 truck-involved fatal crashes, 4% of the total, were recorded in a work zone. They killed 29 people. That is a small number, but it is 47% of the 47 fatal crashes recorded in South Carolina work zones over the period. With counts this low the percentage is fragile, and work-zone status depends on the reporting officer noting it.
What this does and doesn’t show
- Fatal crashes only. The source records only crashes in which someone died within 30 days. Injury and property-damage crashes involving trucks are far more numerous and are not counted here.
- Counts, not rates. There is no figure here for miles driven by trucks on each road or in each county. A road or county that carries more freight will record more truck-involved crashes without necessarily being more dangerous per mile.
- Involvement is not fault. A crash is counted when a large truck was present. The data does not say who caused it. A truck-involved crash may have been caused by the truck driver, by another driver, by the road or by the conditions.
- A broad definition of truck. “Large truck” means any vehicle over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, which includes box trucks, heavy pickups and other single-unit trucks as well as tractor-trailers. Tractor-trailers were involved in 53% of the crashes counted here, and that subset is reported separately where it matters.
- Recent data may change. Figures for 2024 come from the newest annual file and may be revised.
After a truck crash
If you or someone in your family has been hurt in a crash with a commercial truck, get medical care first, keep any photographs, names and paperwork from the scene, and be careful about giving statements before you understand what happened. Roden Law’s South Carolina truck accident lawyers and our Charleston truck accident team can explain your options.
Methodology
Data. NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), national annual files for 2020 through 2024, downloaded 30 September 2026. FARS is the federal census of fatal traffic crashes on US public roads.
Scope. Every fatal crash recorded in South Carolina in those files. A crash is counted as truck-involved when at least one vehicle carries a FARS body-type code between 60 and 79, NHTSA’s medium and heavy vehicle range. The tractor-trailer subset is body type 66.
Deaths are people recorded with a fatal injury in the FARS person file, checked crash by crash against the crash-level death count. A death is attributed to a truck occupant when the person was in a vehicle in the large-truck range, and to another vehicle, a pedestrian or a cyclist otherwise.
Road type uses the FARS route signing field. US and state routes are combined, and South Carolina’s state secondary roads are counted with them: the 2023 and 2024 files code those roads separately, where earlier years coded them as state highways. Rural and urban come from the FARS land-use field. Daytime means a crash hour from 6 a.m. to 5:59 p.m.
Reproducing this. The analysis script is published with the report. Point it at the extracted FARS files and it regenerates every number here, and the dataset below. If the output differs from this page, this page is wrong and we would like to know.
The data
The crash-level dataset has one row per truck-involved fatal crash in South Carolina, 601 rows, with year, FARS case number, county, deaths by person type, truck body types, road, route type, land use, hour, day of week and work-zone status. Download it here: sc-truck-fatal-crashes-2020-2024.csv. It may be reused with attribution.
This report is intended to be updated each year as a new FARS file is released.
About the Author
Graeham C. Gillin
Partner, COOGraeham C. Gillin serves as both attorney and Chief Operating Officer at Roden Law. He brings multifaceted expertise with a professional background spanning business management and commercial construction. His diverse experience positions him to lead the firm’s management, growth, and operational success. Education J.D., Charleston School of Law Bachelor’s Degree, Montana State University Bar Admission […]
View Full Profile →Want more from Roden Law in your Google results?
