Fatal car crash statistics 2024

The number of fatal car crashes in each state has risen significantly over the last several years. From 2018 to 2022, the number of deadly accidents in the United States increased by more than 16% — from 36,835 fatal car crashes in 2018 to 42,795 fatal car crashes in 2022.^1,2

Some states have seen an even larger increase in fatal crashes. In the sections below, we’ll look at fatal car crash statistics by state, as well as when and why fatal car accidents happen.

What percentage of car accidents are fatal?

There are nearly 43,000 fatal crashes a year in the U.S., but there’s at least a glimmer of hope: The actual deadly car crash rate is less than 1%. Let’s dive into the numbers:

• In 2021, there were an estimated 6,102,936 police-reported vehicle accidents in the United States.^3,16
  • Of those, 39,508 were fatal.
  • That makes the effective deadly car crash death rate 0.7% — and more positively, the percentage of car crashes not resulting in fatalities 99.3%.
• However, the chance of survival depends on certain circumstances.
  • For instance, wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of death by 45% if you’re in the front seat.⁷
  • Similarly, speeding makes crashes more likely (it’s harder to stop in time), and high speeds also increase the chances of fatality because of the increased crash energy.⁸ Speed played a role in 29% of all car accident deaths in 2021.⁹
• Car crashes are the leading cause of death in the United States for people ages 1 to 54.¹⁰
  • There are 14.3 motor-related deaths per 100,000 people.¹¹
  • A bright spot: That’s a 54% improvement over 1937, when the U.S. had 30.8 traffic-related deaths per 100,000 people.
• Teens are especially at risk.¹²
  • Motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 leading cause of death for people ages 13 to 19.
  • Teen drivers between 16 and 19 are nearly 3 times more likely to die in a car crash than drivers 20 and up.

How many fatal car crashes are there each day? 

Over the last three years, there’s been an average of 114 fatal car crashes every day.¹

• 2020 had an average of 107 fatal car accidents per day.
• 2021 had the highest daily average of car accident fatalities: 118 a day.
• 2022 saw an average of 117 fatal accidents per day.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans were driving less,⁴ but that didn’t reduce fatalities.⁵

• Police-reported crashes decreased by 22% in 2020, during the start of the pandemic.
• The number of people injured in accidents also decreased by 17% in 2020 compared to 2019.
• However, fatal car crash statistics went up 6.8% from 2019 to 2020.

Related: Best car insurance companies

Fatal crash statistics by state: Where do most fatal car accidents occur?

High-population and high-tourism states such as Texas, California and Florida are home to the most fatal car crashes. On the flip side, drivers are least likely to be in a fatal car crash in Rhode Island.

• The most fatal accidents happened in Texas in 2022. The Lone Star State had 4,496 fatal car crashes that year.² That’s a 36% increase over 2019.³
  • Texas also has the most total lane miles of any state: 654,923 miles. That’s nearly 70% more roadway miles than the next highest state, California (386,604 lane miles).¹³ This could have some impact on Texas’ leading number of car crash fatalities.
  • California was a close second in 2022 with 4,407 deadly car accidents. Rounding out the top three is Florida, with 3,652 fatal car crashes in 2022.²
• Rhode Island had only 54 deadly car wrecks in 2022.² Despite its small geographic size, Rhode Island is not the state with the lowest population, but it does have the lowest amount of roadway miles (followed closely by Delaware and then Alaska).¹³
  • Vermont only had 77 fatal car crashes in 2022.²
  • Alaska fell close behind at 81 deadly car accidents in 2022.²
• Vermont had the largest increase in its fatal car crash rate between 2019³ and 2022²: Deathly wrecks jumped 75%.
• Despite its large population, New York is not a leading state for fatal car accidents (1,148 in 2022).² This is likely because people in the New York-Newark-Jersey City area have the lowest rate of car ownership of any metropolitan area in the country.¹⁷

States with the highest rate of fatal traffic incidents

Texas may have the highest number of fatal traffic incidents, but a large part of that is the fact that there are simply more people — and more roadways — in the state. Sometimes, it’s more useful to look at which states have the highest rate of car crash deaths.^2,14

• Mississippi has the highest rate of fatal car wrecks.
  • In 2022, Mississippi had 34 car crash deaths per 100,000 registered vehicles.
  • That’s more than double the U.S. average (16 per 100,000 vehicles) in the same year.
• The next-highest state is South Carolina.
  • South Carolina had 24 deadly car accidents per 100,000 vehicles in 2022.
  • That’s nearly 29% less than the fatal accident rate in Mississippi.
• The state with the lowest rate of deadly traffic incidents is Rhode Island.
  • There were only 6 deadly car crashes for every 100,000 vehicles in Rhode Island in 2022.
• Only a handful of other states had a single-digit number of deadly car wrecks per 100,000 vehicles.
  • Minnesota had 8 fatal traffic-related incidents per 100,000 vehicles in 2022.
  • Hawaii, Iowa and Massachusetts had 9 deadline car accidents per 100,000 vehicles in 2022.
  • Washington, D.C. also had 9 deadly car crashes per 100,000 vehicles in 2022.
• For reference, there are 275,936,367 registered vehicles in the U.S.
  • Given the total number of fatal car crashes in 2022 (42,795), the U.S. average fatal crash rate is nearly 16 deaths per 100,000 vehicles.

Speeding-related fatal crashes by state

Speed plays a large role in auto fatalities, as evidenced by the following car crash speed statistics:

• Speeding-related fatal crashes are on the rise.
  • 2021 was the third year in a row with an increase in the number of speeding-related fatal crashes.⁹
  • Speeding played a role in 29% of all traffic fatalities in 2021, killing an average of 33 people per day in the United States.⁹
• Only two states had more than 1,000 speeding-related deadly crashes in 2021.
  • Texas leads in speeding-related fatal crashes: 1,387 in 2021.³
  • California is a close second with 1,384 in 2021.³
• Only a few states had fewer than 25 speeding-related fatal car crashes in 2021.
  • Rhode Island had the fewest: 18 speeding-related fatal car accidents in 2021.³
  • Alaska and Maine had 21 each, and North Dakota had 23.³
• Speeding-related fatal accidents are on the rise in Louisiana — up 182% from 2019 to 2021.³

States with the highest rate of fatal speeding-related crashes

California and Texas lead in the highest number of speeding-related deadly wrecks per year. But which states have the highest rate of fatal speeding-related accidents?

• Hawaii tops the list: Speed plays a role in 48% of fatal automobile crashes in the Aloha State.³
  • Only three other states are in the 40%+ camp: Vermont (42%), South Carolina (40%) and Pennsylvania (40%).³
• Speed is only a factor in 10% of deadly car crashes in Florida.³
  • Speed is also less of a factor in fatal crashes in Mississippi (15%); Tennessee, Nebraska and Maine (16% each); and Kentucky (17%).³

What percentage of fatal crashes involve alcohol?

Driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol is incredibly dangerous — the number of alcohol-related crashes resulting in death are proof.

• Across the United States, more than a third (36%) of all fatal crashes involve alcohol.³
  • Specifically, 31% involve a driver with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08% or more.³ In all but one state, 0.08% represents the threshold for a DUI; in Utah, it’s 0.05%.¹⁸
  • Severe impairment starts at 0.15% for the average driver; 21% of all fatal crashes involve a driver who has a BAC of 0.15% of more.³
  • In 2021, there were 13,384 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities.¹⁹
• Deadly alcohol-related crashes are on the rise: The number of fatal crashes involving alcohol has increased by 32% since 2019, when there were 10,142 fatal car crashes where at least one driver was drunk.¹⁵

Which state has the most alcohol-related crashes resulting in death? Texas leads the pack but is trailed closely by California and Florida.³

• In 2021, Texas had 1,942 alcohol-related fatal crashes on the road. 
• California was second with 1,431 deadly car crashes related to alcohol impairment.
• Florida had 1,045 alcohol-related fatal accidents in 2021.
• Alaska had the fewest number of alcohol-related fatal driving incidents in 2021 at just 20.

States with the highest rate of alcohol-related crashes

When analyzing how many fatal crashes involve alcohol, you can see a wide disparity across various states. Nearly half (48%) of all fatal crashes in Texas involve alcohol. Mississippi is on the other side of the coin; less than a quarter (23%) of its fatal traffic incidents are related to alcohol.³

• Overall, Texas had the highest rate of fatal accidents involving alcohol (48%) in 2021; 28% of all fatal Texas accidents involve a driver who is severely impaired.
  • Other states with a high rate of alcohol-related crashes include Connecticut and Montana (46%), Washington (45%), Ohio (45%) and New Hampshire (43%).
  • Montana had the highest rate of fatal crashes involving someone who was severely impaired (30%).
• Mississippi had the lowest rate of fatal accidents involving alcohol (23%) in 2021.
  • Only a few other states had alcohol-related fatal accident rates below 30% that same year: Utah (27%), North Dakota (28%) and Kentucky (28%).

When do most fatal car accidents occur? 

The time of the year, day of the week and time of day all have an impact on the number of fatal car accidents. Here’s a look at some of the high-level stats:

• What month do most car accidents occur? October had the highest number of fatal accidents in 2021 (3,799). February (the shortest month of the year) had the lowest number (2,340).²
• What day of the week do most car accidents occur? Saturday is the deadliest day of the week for car accidents; Tuesday has the lowest number of auto-related fatalities, on average.³
• What time of day do most car accidents occur? The most dangerous time to be on the road is 9 to 10 p.m. — 2,359 fatal car accidents occurred in this time window in 2021, more than any other 1-hour slot in the day.

Which month has the most fatal car crashes?

We know which month has the most fatal car accidents (October) and the least (February). But what else does the data tell us?³

• In both 2021 and 2022, October led the pack with the most fatal car crashes of any month.
  • In 2021 specifically, there were 3,799 fatal car crashes in October.
• Despite the high fatal crash numbers in October, summer — July, August and September — is the most deadly season.
  • In July 2021, there were 3,562 fatal crashes.
  • In August 2021, there were 3,715 fatal crashes.
  • In September 2021, there were 3,623 fatal crashes.
  • Colder, northern states are more likely to have a higher percentage of fatal crashes in the summer than warmer, southern states.

Which day of the week has the most fatal car crashes?

Unsurprisingly, weekends (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) tend to have more fatal car crashes than weekdays.³

• Saturday leads the pack in deadly car accidents. In 2021, 6,735 fatal car crashes occurred on Saturday.
• Friday and Sunday followed closely behind (6,358 and 6,243, respectively). Notably, there was one more Friday in 2021 than any other day of the week — and it was on New Year’s Eve — which will have slightly skewed these results.
• Analyzing which days of the week typically had more fatal collisions surfaces some surprising results at the state level. For instance:
  • Arkansas had the most fatal car accidents on Sunday, not Friday or Saturday.
  • Montana had a stark drop in fatal accidents on Wednesday (16 in total).
  • Thursdays were just as deadly as Fridays in some states, including Mississippi (105 both days), New Jersey (90 both days) and Rhode Island (9 both days). 
  • In Louisiana and North Dakota, there were actually more fatal car crashes on Thursday (134 and 15, respectively) than on Friday (132 and 10, respectively).

What time of day do most fatal car accidents occur?

Time of day also has a major influence on fatal accident rates.³ In general, the evening and nighttime are more deadly, which could be due to a number of factors, including poor visibility, more nocturnal animals on the road and more drunk or drowsy drivers on the road. 

• The highest number of fatal accidents occur between 9 and 10 p.m. (984 in 2021).
• The evening and nighttime in general have a higher rate of fatal car accidents, mixing together evening rush hour and late-night driving fatalities.
  • Most fatal accidents occur between 5 and 11 p.m. In 2021, there were more than 2,000 fatal car accidents in each of these 1-hour windows.
  • Fatal accidents continue into the night, with 1,880 between 11 p.m. and midnight in 2021.
  • They begin to taper off from there as most people are sleeping; 4 to 5 a.m. has the lowest amount of fatalities (979 in 2021).
  • The numbers pick up again during the morning commute; 6 to 7 a.m. is the deadliest in the morning (1,341 in 2021), but they drop off again at 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. (984 in 2021).

¹ NHTSA: “Early Estimate of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities For the First Quarter of 2023."

² NHTSA: “Early Estimates of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities in 2022.”  

³ NTHSA: Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data.

⁴ NHTSA: “NHTSA Estimates for 2022 Show Roadway Fatalities Remain Flat After Two Years of Dramatic Increases.”

⁵ NTHSA: “NHTSA Releases 2020 Traffic Crash Data.”  

⁶ NHTSA: “Early Estimates of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities And Fatality Rate by Sub-Categories in 2021." 

⁷ NHTSA: “Seat Belts."

⁸ Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: “Speed.”  

⁹ National Safety Council: “Speeding.”

¹⁰ CDC: “Road Traffic Injuries and Deaths—A Global Problem."

¹¹ National Safety Council: “Car Crash Deaths and Rates."

¹² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Teen Driver and Passenger Safety.”

¹³ Office of Highway Policy Information: "Highway Statistics Series 2008."

¹⁴ Office of Highway Policy Information: "Highway Statistics Series 2020."

¹⁵ USA TODAY Blueprint: "States with the most summer driving fatalities.”

¹⁶ NHTSA: “Overview of Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes in 2021.”

¹⁷ United States Census Bureau: “American Community Survey 2017-2021."

¹⁸ Utah Department of Public Safety: “Commissioner Squires Releases Information on .05 BAC Change.”

¹⁹  NHTSA: “Quick Facts 2021.”