Published by Idaho Fidelity. This tracker documents CDL-vehicle incidents across the United States from 2000 to present. It is built on public government data, public news reporting, and official investigative records. All sources are cited on every incident. Nothing is inferred — if a source doesn't say it, we don't either.

What We Track

Any incident involving a vehicle requiring a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) — generally vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating over 26,000 lbs. This includes semi trucks, tanker trucks, flatbeds, dump trucks, and other large commercial vehicles. School buses and passenger carriers are outside current scope.

Coverage: 2000 to present, all 50 states. Use the state filter on the map or incident table to view Idaho-only or any other state's data.

Fault Classification Rules

Fault is classified strictly by documented facts from primary sources. No editorial judgment is applied.

• AT_FAULT (Trucker At Fault): Police report, court record, NTSB finding, or official citation names the CDL driver as the responsible party. Examples: DUI, fatigue, improper lane change, running red light, following too closely, unsecured load, speeding.
• NOT_AT_FAULT (Trucker Not At Fault): Official record establishes the other driver, road condition, or weather as the cause, and the CDL driver had no contributing factor documented. Pure weather incidents qualify only when no poor driving for conditions is noted.
• NO_FAULT_STATED: Source does not contain enough documented information to classify. Investigation pending, disputed, or simply not reported. This is the default.
• Classification may be updated when follow-up reporting or official findings are published. Updates are noted in the record.
• Fault status is never inferred from article tone, assumptions about nationality, or any other non-factual basis.

Foreign Driver Flag

The foreign driver flag is set only when a source explicitly documents that the driver held a non-domiciled CDL, was identified as a foreign national, or immigration status was a documented factor in the incident record. It is never inferred from a name, ethnicity, or assumed from any other characteristic. The note field on each flagged record shows exactly what the source stated.

This data point exists because federal agencies including the FMCSA, NTSB, and DOT have documented a pattern of non-domiciled CDL issuance issues and enforcement gaps. Sources are cited. We report what is documented.

Cost Methodology

Two cost figures are shown for every incident where applicable:

FHWA baseline values used:

These are conservative estimates. Actual costs including emergency response, road closure, freight loss, environmental cleanup, and litigation often exceed these figures. When follow-up reporting provides actual cost figures, the stated cost field is updated.

Source: FHWA Departmental Guidance on Value of a Statistical Life (2022)

Company Per-Capita Rates

Raw incident counts favor singling out large carriers simply because they have more drivers and more trucks on the road. The per-capita rate (incidents per 100 drivers) provides a fairer comparison. Both are shown on the Companies page.

Driver count data source priority:

• CDL driver count from FMCSA Motor Carrier Census (self-reported by carrier)
• Total driver count from FMCSA Motor Carrier Census (if CDL count not available)
• Registered power units as proxy denominator (if no driver count available)

This is not a complete carrier safety record. The FMCSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) contains full inspection and crash data for all registered carriers. This tracker focuses on incidents with public documentation and named sources.

Data Sources

Update Schedule

The scraper runs on the 1st and 15th of each month via GitHub Actions. New incidents are placed in a pending review queue and opened as a pull request for editorial review before being published to the live database. No incident is published automatically without human review.

Corrections & Submissions

If you have a correction, an incident to report, or documentation that should update an existing record, open an issue on GitHub or contact Idaho Fidelity directly. All updates require source documentation.