Permian Basin Highways Rank as Texas’s Deadliest for Trucking

The analysis of nearly 58,000 miles of roadway reveals that the Permian Basin bears the highest burden of severe incidents. SH 158 through Midland records 56.5 truck injury crashes per 100 million truck miles, a frequency nearly four times the study average. While urban corridors like Dallas’s I-635 see a higher sheer volume of collisions—averaging one injury crash every six days—these accidents are statistically less likely to result in fatalities than those on remote stretches.

Rural highways dominate the list of the most lethal corridors, with nine of the 10 deadliest segments located outside major metropolitan centers. In these areas, trucks often account for nearly 30 percent of total traffic, moving at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour. The most extreme case appears on US 79 near the Louisiana border, where one-third of all truck-related injury crashes prove fatal. Angel Reyes, managing partner at the firm, suggests that these findings mandate a broader discussion regarding the management of heavy freight traffic on rural infrastructure to curb the disproportionate concentration of risk.