Truck-involved fatalities and truck-involved crashes both dropped in 2008, according to data released by the American Trucking Associations (ATA). Fatalities dropped to a record-low 12.3 percent, the lowest figure since 1975, when records started being kept. The figures were calculated based on data from both the Federal Highway Administration and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. The ATA attributes the declines to the hours-of-service regulations that took effect in 2005. Since that time, the truck-involved fatality rate has fallen more than 20 percent.

The rate of truck-involved fatalities in the United States dropped 12.3% in 2008 to a record low, American Trucking Associations said Wednesday.

The figure fell to 1.86 fatalities per 100 million miles, the lowest since records began in 1975, from 2.12 per 100 million miles in 2007, ATA said in a statement.

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