Caddo Parish truck deaths, 2020 to 2024
Caddo Parish sits where I-20 and I-49 cross, and the trucks that move through Northwest Louisiana move through Shreveport. Medium and heavy trucks are about a fifth of peak-period traffic on I-20 through downtown, the highest truck share of any congested segment the regional planning council measured. The Inner Loop carries about 6,800 trucks a day, among the ten heaviest truck routes in Louisiana, and the state’s freight plan ranks I-20 through Shreveport among its highest-need corridors. Across all crash severities, about one in five large-truck or bus crashes in the parish from 2020 through 2024 happened on I-20. The record below covers the parish and Shreveport inside it from 2020 through 2024: what the federal and state figures each measure, where the fatal crashes concentrate, and who investigates them.
From 2020 through 2024, the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System recorded 19 fatal crashes in Caddo Parish that involved a large truck, and 22 people died in them. At least 11 of those crashes happened inside Shreveport city limits, and 14 people died in them.
| Year | Caddo crashes | Caddo deaths | Shreveport crashes | Shreveport deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 2021 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 4 |
| 2022 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 2023 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
Fatal large-truck crashes by year, for the parish and for Shreveport.
- Caddo Parish
- Inside Shreveport
| Series | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caddo Parish | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Inside Shreveport | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
In 2024 alone, the fatality file shows five Caddo Parish crashes with a large truck, and six people died in them.
Two counts of Caddo Parish truck crashes in 2024
The counts above cover only fatal crashes. For 2024, a state report and a federal file each count truck crashes more broadly, and they differ because they measure different things. Louisiana’s crash data counts every police-reported commercial vehicle crash at any severity. The federal file keeps only the crashes the state has uploaded. The file takes only crashes with a death, an injury treated away from the scene, or a tow-away.
The state count and the federal count for 2024
In 2024, Caddo Parish recorded 214 crashes involving a commercial motor vehicle, according to the Louisiana Traffic Records Summary Report. Five of them were fatal and 116 caused injuries. That report breaks the 214 into 5 fatal crashes, 116 injury crashes and 93 property-damage-only crashes. Federal records list 207 crashes involving a large truck or bus in Caddo Parish in 2024, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)‘s crash file. Six people were killed and 153 injured.
| Measure | State report (commercial motor vehicles) | Federal crash file (large trucks and buses) |
|---|---|---|
| Fatal crashes | 5 | 5 |
| Injury crashes | 116 | 95 |
| Property damage only or towaway | 93 | 107 |
| Total | 214 | 207 |
| People killed and injured | not given per vehicle type | 6 killed, 153 injured |
The state report counts crashes involving a commercial motor vehicle; the federal file counts crashes involving a large truck or bus. The two labels overlap but are not identical.
States send crash records to the federal file after the fact, and a recent year can run short until the uploads catch up. That is a general reason the two files can differ, not a finding about the Caddo numbers.
Three measures of Caddo Parish truck crashes, kept apart
The state count, the federal count and the fatal count in the first section are three different measures. The fatality file counts only crashes where someone died, so its 2024 figure for Caddo is far smaller than either of the other two. None of the three counts says what caused any crash.
Caddo Parish against the rest of Louisiana
From 2020 through 2024, Caddo Parish had 17 of Louisiana’s 482 fatal crashes involving a commercial motor vehicle, about 3.5%. In the same years it had about 4.8% of the state’s licensed drivers. In 2024 alone, 13.16% of Caddo’s fatal crashes involved a commercial vehicle, above the statewide 10.76%.
The 17 here is the state report’s count. The 19 in the first section is the federal fatality file’s, and the two are not one series.
In 2024, Caddo Parish recorded 38 fatal crashes and 42 people killed, according to the Louisiana Traffic Records Summary Report. Commercial vehicles were involved in 5 of those 38 fatal crashes, about 13%. Statewide, 76 of the 482 commercial-vehicle fatal crashes in the five years happened in 2024.
Northwest Louisiana in the state’s commercial vehicle safety plan
The state’s commercial vehicle safety plan adds a regional comparison, grouping Caddo with two neighboring parishes rather than measuring the parish alone. In 2023, Caddo and those two neighboring parishes together accounted for 11.83% of all commercial vehicle crashes in Louisiana, that plan says. In the same plan, State Police lists both I-20 and I-49 among Louisiana’s high-crash corridors.
Where the fatal truck crashes happen in Caddo Parish
Of the 19 fatal large-truck crashes in Caddo Parish from 2020 through 2024, eight were on I-20 and three on I-49. Across all crashes, not only fatal ones, about one in five large-truck or bus crashes in Caddo Parish from 2020 through 2024 happened on I-20.
I-20 through Shreveport: truck share, injuries and planned safety work
In the Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments’ 2025 congestion study, medium and heavy trucks were 21% of peak-period traffic on eastbound I-20 from I-49 to the Traffic Street exit downtown. That was the highest truck share of the ten congested segments the council ranked, using July 2022 to July 2023 data. The 2025 Northwest Louisiana regional safety action plan maps where fatal and serious injury crashes concentrated from 2018 to 2022. What the plan calls its high-injury network includes stretches of I-20 in Caddo Parish. They run both directions from the I-49 interchange to the parish line, and from I-49 to Jewella Avenue. The same plan recommends about $10.6 million in safety work on a 5.8-mile stretch of I-20 from the Jewella Avenue interchange to the parish line. That work includes better shoulders, rumble strips, delineator posts, barriers and guardrails, rated a high priority with a long-term time frame. Louisiana’s 2024 State Freight Plan ranks I-20 through Shreveport, from Monkhouse Drive across the Red River, among the state’s highest-need freight corridors. Safety is one of the needs it names.
The Inner Loop (LA 3132) carries about 6,800 trucks a day on average, one of the ten highest truck volumes of any Louisiana route, according to DOTD’s 2024 State Freight Plan.
Fatal truck crashes on I-20 and I-49 in 2026
The counts above end in 2024, but local news reported two 2026 crashes on those same interstates, one on I-20 and one on I-49. In September 2026, an 18-wheeler crossed the I-20 median in west Shreveport, struck a second truck and overturned. Two people died, according to Shreveport police as reported by KSLA and KTAL. In May 2026, two 18-wheelers crashed on southbound I-49 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Drive interchange in Shreveport. One person died, according to Shreveport police as reported by KSLA and KTBS. Neither report assigns fault, and neither does this page.
The agencies that investigate truck crashes in Caddo Parish
Police agencies are the prime source of the information these reports draw on. Crash reports written at the scene by Louisiana State Police, parish sheriff’s deputies or city police are stored in statewide databases for analysis of the causes of wrecks, fatalities and injuries. Louisiana requires that a collision be reported to the relevant agency when there is injury or loss of life.
The Shreveport Police Department has a Crash Investigation Unit for serious and fatal crashes. Its officers have investigated fatal crashes on I-20, I-49, I-220 and LA 3132 inside the city, including crashes involving 18-wheelers.
Louisiana State Police’s Motor Carrier Safety Unit
Louisiana State Police’s Motor Carrier Safety Unit, which enforces federal truck safety rules, has its Region 3 office in Shreveport. That office covers State Police Troops E, F and G, an area that includes Caddo Parish. Under Louisiana’s commercial vehicle safety plan, a truck crash that causes serious injury or death brings in the agency’s certified commercial vehicle inspectors. The plan also says State Police focuses its carrier investigations on high-risk trucking companies. That includes companies flagged by a complaint or a request after a fatal crash.
The deadline to file a Caddo Parish truck crash claim
None of this sets the deadline to file. For a crash on or after July 1, 2024, the prescriptive period, Louisiana’s filing deadline, is two years from the injury. For a crash before July 1, 2024, the old one-year deadline applies, and it covers every crash in the 2020 to 2023 counts above. The rest of the claim law is on the Shreveport truck accident lawyers page: who may file, how a death or a child’s claim changes the deadline, and what filing in the right court does.