Oilfield Truck Crashes in Oklahoma Kill and Injure Dozens in Recent Years

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Joe Wertz / StateImpact Oklahoma

An oil-field truck pulls into a well in north-central Oklahoma.

Thirty-six people in Oklahoma have died in crashes “involving trucks hauling oilfield wastewater and equipment” over the last eight years, The Frontier and News9 report.

Data show that 7 percent of all truck companies licensed for oil-field work in Oklahoma have been involved in fatal accidents, including crashes blamed on “bad brakes, trucks thousands of pounds overweight, failure to test drivers for drugs,” the news organizations report:

There are 358 trucking companies licensed in Oklahoma, working for some of the biggest energy companies operating in the state.

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The deaths and crashes are happening all across Oklahoma — mostly on rural state and county roads.

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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rates trucking companies on safety. Seven of the 24 companies involved in those deadly crashes have conditional ratings – the lowest rating a company can have and still be in operation.

Oklahoma ranked No. 2 in fatal occupational injuries in the oil and gas industry from 2003-2011, “the latest year that data is available,” according to a report from Petro Global News.