Florida’s Commercial Vehicle Crash Rankings Shift Sharply When Traffic Volume Is Factored In

Miami-Dade remains No. 1, while Polk jumps from seventh to third among Florida’s 10 highest-volume counties after roadway exposure is factored in.

WINTER HAVEN, FL, UNITED STATES, September 29, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Miami-Dade remains highest among the state’s 10 highest-volume counties, while Polk jumps from seventh to third
Tampa, Fla. September 29, 2026 – Florida recorded 46,677 crashes involving commercial motor vehicles in 2024, but a new analysis shows the counties with the most crashes can look dramatically different once the amount of traffic on their roads is factored in.

A Brooks Law Group analysis of state crash and roadway data found that Miami-Dade’s traffic-adjusted commercial vehicle crash frequency was more than twice Florida’s statewide benchmark, while Polk County jumped from seventh in raw CMV crashes to third among the 10 highest-volume counties after roadway exposure was taken into account.

The findings show how raw crash totals can obscure significant differences in crash frequency across Florida communities.
Miami-Dade recorded 8,546 crashes involving commercial motor vehicles in 2024, more than any other Florida county. When compared with the amount of travel occurring on its roads, that equaled approximately 38.8 CMV crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles traveled.
Florida’s statewide figure was approximately 18.7, putting Miami-Dade’s traffic-adjusted CMV crash frequency approximately 107% above the statewide benchmark.

Polk County produced an equally striking shift for a different reason.
Polk recorded 1,968 CMV crashes in 2024, placing it seventh among the 10 counties with the highest raw crash totals. Once overall roadway travel was taken into account, Polk rose to No. 3, with approximately 22.1 CMV crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles traveled.

Only Miami-Dade and Broward ranked higher among the counties analyzed.
“These numbers matter because they represent more than dots on a map or lines in a spreadsheet,” said Steve Brooks, founder and managing partner of Brooks Law Group. “Every one of these crashes involved real people whose lives were suddenly interrupted. In the most serious cases, a few seconds on the road can leave someone facing a life-changing injury, a family grieving a loss, or months and years of recovery. Looking more closely at where these crashes are happening helps us see the human story behind the statistics.”

Traffic-Adjusted CMV Crash Rankings Among Florida’s 10 Highest-Volume Counties

1. Miami-Dade — 8,546 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 1 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 1 | 38.8 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

2. Broward — 4,551 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 2 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 2 | 24.9 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

3. Polk — 1,968 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 7 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 3 | 22.1 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

4. Duval — 2,797 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 6 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 4 | 21.9 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

5. Palm Beach — 3,166 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 3 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 5 | 20.8 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

6. Lee — 1,815 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 8 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 6 | 19.7 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

7. Hillsborough — 2,982 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 4 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 7 | 18.1 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

8. Orange — 2,828 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 5 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 8 | 16.0 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

9. Pinellas — 1,397 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 9 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 9 | 14.9 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

10. Volusia — 942 CMV crashes | Raw rank: 10 | Traffic-adjusted rank: 10 | 13.1 crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles

Six of the 10 counties analyzed exceeded Florida’s statewide benchmark of approximately 18.7 CMV crashes per 100 million total vehicle miles traveled.
The rankings also shifted beyond Polk. Duval moved from sixth in raw crashes to fourth after traffic volume was factored in, while Lee moved from eighth to sixth. Palm Beach fell from third to fifth, Hillsborough from fourth to seventh, and Orange from fifth to eighth.

Nearly 1 in 5 Florida CMV Crashes Occurred in Miami-Dade
Miami-Dade accounted for approximately 18% of Florida’s commercial motor vehicle crashes in 2024, with 8,546 of the state’s 46,677 crashes.
But Florida’s counties carry vastly different amounts of roadway traffic.

FDOT reported approximately 60.2 million vehicle miles traveled on an average day in Miami-Dade County in 2024, compared with approximately 50 million in Broward and 24.4 million in Polk.
That difference in roadway exposure helps explain why the rankings change.
Although Polk recorded less than one-quarter as many CMV crashes as Miami-Dade, its lower overall traffic volume pushed its traffic-adjusted frequency above Duval, Palm Beach, Lee, Hillsborough, Orange, Pinellas and Volusia among the counties analyzed.

FLHSMV’s commercial motor vehicle category includes certain buses and medium or heavy trucks, vehicles displaying hazardous-material placards, vehicles meeting specified weight thresholds and vehicles identified as commercial on the crash report. A crash involving a commercial motor vehicle does not establish that the commercial vehicle or its driver caused the collision.

How Brooks Law Group Calculated the Traffic-Adjusted Rankings
Brooks Law Group compared 2024 county commercial motor vehicle crash totals reported by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles with county-level Daily Vehicle Miles Traveled data from the Florida Department of Transportation.

Annual vehicle miles traveled were calculated by multiplying each county’s average daily vehicle miles traveled by 366 days because 2024 was a leap year. Each county’s CMV crash total was then divided by annual vehicle miles traveled and multiplied by 100 million.
The resulting figure represents crashes involving commercial motor vehicles per 100 million total vehicle miles traveled.
The measure provides a consistent way to compare CMV crash frequency with overall roadway exposure. It should not be interpreted as a commercial-driver crash rate or as the probability that an individual commercial vehicle will be involved in a collision because FDOT’s county mileage totals include travel by all vehicle types, not commercial vehicles alone.

The analysis is limited to the 10 Florida counties that recorded the greatest number of CMV crashes in 2024 and should not be interpreted as a traffic-adjusted ranking of all 67 Florida counties.

About Brooks Law Group
Brooks Law Group is a Florida personal injury law firm representing individuals and families throughout the state. The firm handles serious injury cases with a particular focus on commercial vehicle accidents, including crashes involving trucks and other large commercial vehicles. Brooks Law Group works to help injured Floridians pursue accountability and compensation when another party’s negligence causes harm.
For more information about Brooks Law Group, visit brookslawgroup.com.

Media Contact
Haven Blackmon
Brooks Law Group
Phone: 800-LAW-3030
Email: haven@brookslawgroup.com

Haven Blackmon
Brooks Law Group
+1 800-529-3030
haven@brookslawgroup.com
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