American Trucking Associations President and CEO Bill Graves recognized the continued progress in the trucking industry’s safety record.

“Based on the latest report from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, fatal crashes involving a large truck have fallen 31 percent from 2007 to 2009 and crashes resulting in injury have fallen 30 percent,” Graves said following a review of FMCSA’s 2009 Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts.

The fatal crash rate has fallen each year since 2005, according to the FMCSA statistics.

In addition, the large truck fatal crash rate fell to 1 crash per 100 million miles in 2009 from 1.1 crashes per 100 million miles in 2008, according to the report. Since 2000, the fatal crash rate for large trucks has fallen 54.5 percent compared with the passenger vehicle fatal crash rate decline of 25 percent.

“These safety gains,” Graves said, “are the result of many things, sensible regulation, improvements in technology, slower more fuel efficient driving, the dedication of professional drivers and safety directors as well as more effective enforcement techniques that look at all the factors involved in crashes, not just a select few.”

Graves also complained FMCSA hasn’t done more to announce the report.