Some 44,800 road traffic fatalities occurred in the United States in 2023, and projections estimate 2024 fatalities could drop to 44,700. Motor vehicle crashes and drug overdoses are the leading causes of death among those under the age of 55 in the United States.

About 228,200 Americans had a license to operate a motor vehicle in the United States in 2020. That year, an estimated 36,680 people died on U.S. roads. Traffic-related fatalities per 100,000 licensed drivers stood at 17.01 in 2020.

Road safety rankings
The United States has among the highest rates of road fatalities per population worldwide. Possible contributing factors to deaths on the road can include speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and driving while fatigued. Traffic fatalities caused by speeding in the United States have declined since 2008, with less than 10,000 deaths recorded annually over recent years.

Automation for the nation
94 percent of severe automobile crashes are due to human error — but driving safety is taken much more seriously today than in the past, with roughly 90 percent of U.S. drivers wearing their seatbelts while driving in 2020. Over recent years, car manufacturers and developers have striven to reduce car crashes even further with partially and fully automated safety features such as forward collision warnings, lane departure warnings, rearview video systems, and automatic emergency braking. Self-driving vehicles are also set to take to the roads in the future, with car brands such as Toyota, Ford, and GM registering over 350 autonomous driving patents respectively in the United States.

The number of road traffic fatalities per one million inhabitants in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 18.5 deaths (+13.81 percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the number is estimated to reach 152.46 deaths and therefore a new peak in 2029. Depicted here are the estimated number of deaths which occured in relation to road traffic. They are set in relation to the population size and depicted as deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of road traffic fatalities per one million inhabitants in countries like Mexico and Canada.

The number of road accidents per one million inhabitants in the United States was forecast to continuously decrease between 2024 and 2029 by in total 2,490.4 accidents (-14.99 percent). After the eighth consecutive decreasing year, the number is estimated to reach 14,118.78 accidents and therefore a new minimum in 2029. Depicted here are the estimated number of accidents which occured in relation to road traffic. They are set in relation to the population size and depicted as accidents per one million inhabitants.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of road accidents per one million inhabitants in countries like Mexico and Canada.

The graph displays the number of car accident fatalities by type in the United States from 2010 to 2022. The x-axis represents the years, labeled from '10 to '22, while the y-axis indicates the number of fatalities. Each year includes data points for four categories: Passenger Vehicle, Pedestrian, Two-Wheeled Vehicle, and Large Truck fatalities. Passenger Vehicle fatalities range from a low of 21,076 in 2014 to a high of 26,650 in 2021. Pedestrian fatalities increase from 4,300 in 2010 to a peak of 7,467 in 2022. Two-Wheeled Vehicle fatalities vary between 5,022 in 2014 and 7,287 in 2022. Large Truck fatalities are the lowest among the categories, ranging from 346 in 2010 to 533 in 2022. The data reveals an overall upward trend in fatalities across all categories, particularly notable in the years 2021 and 2022.

The average for 2019 based on 12 countries was 19.05 deaths per 100,000 people. The highest value was in Venezuela: 39 deaths per 100,000 people and the lowest value was in Peru: 13.6 deaths per 100,000 people. The indicator is available from 2000 to 2019. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The Motor Vehicle Collisions crash table contains details on the crash event. Each row represents a crash event. The Motor Vehicle Collisions data tables contain information from all police reported motor vehicle collisions in NYC. The police report (MV104-AN) is required to be filled out for collisions where someone is injured or killed, or where there is at least $1000 worth of damage (https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/ny_overlay_mv-104an_rev05_2004.pdf). It should be noted that the data is preliminary and subject to change when the MV-104AN forms are amended based on revised crash details.For the most accurate, up to date statistics on traffic fatalities, please refer to the NYPD Motor Vehicle Collisions page (updated weekly) or Vision Zero View (updated monthly). Due to success of the CompStat program, NYPD began to ask how to apply the CompStat principles to other problems. Other than homicides, the fatal incidents with which police have the most contact with the public are fatal traffic collisions. Therefore in April 1998, the Department implemented TrafficStat, which uses the CompStat model to work towards improving traffic safety. Police officers complete form MV-104AN for all vehicle collisions. The MV-104AN is a New York State form that has all of the details of a traffic collision. Before implementing Trafficstat, there was no uniform traffic safety data collection procedure for all of the NYPD precincts. Therefore, the Police Department implemented the Traffic Accident Management System (TAMS) in July 1999 in order to collect traffic data in a uniform method across the City. TAMS required the precincts manually enter a few selected MV-104AN fields to collect very basic intersection traffic crash statistics which included the number of accidents, injuries and fatalities. As the years progressed, there grew a need for additional traffic data so that more detailed analyses could be conducted. The Citywide traffic safety initiative, Vision Zero started in the year 2014. Vision Zero further emphasized the need for the collection of more traffic data in order to work towards the Vision Zero goal, which is to eliminate traffic fatalities. Therefore, the Department in March 2016 replaced the TAMS with the new Finest Online Records Management System (FORMS). FORMS enables the police officers to electronically, using a Department cellphone or computer, enter all of the MV-104AN data fields and stores all of the MV-104AN data fields in the Department’s crime data warehouse. Since all of the MV-104AN data fields are now stored for each traffic collision, detailed traffic safety analyses can be conducted as applicable.

United States US: Road Fatalities: Per One Million Vehicle-km data was reported at 7.805 Ratio in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 8.265 Ratio for 2022. United States US: Road Fatalities: Per One Million Vehicle-km data is updated yearly, averaging 8.404 Ratio from Dec 1994 (Median) to 2023, with 30 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 10.731 Ratio in 1994 and a record low of 6.725 Ratio in 2014. United States US: Road Fatalities: Per One Million Vehicle-km data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.ITF: Road Traffic and Road Accident Fatalities: OECD Member: Annual. [COVERAGE] ROAD FATALITIES A road fatality is any person killed immediately or dying within 30 days as a result of an injury accident, excluding suicides. A killed person is excluded if the competent authority declares the cause of death to be suicide, i.e. a deliberate act to injure oneself resulting in death. For countries that do not apply the threshold of 30 days, conversion coefficients are estimated so that comparison on the basis of the 30-day definition can be made. ROAD TRAFFIC Road traffic is any movement of a road vehicle on a given road network. When a road vehicle is being carried on another vehicle, only the movement of the carrying (active mode) is considered. [COVERAGE] ROAD TRAFFIC IRTAD - Data refer to road motor vehicle traffic of motorised two-wheelers, passenger cars, goods road motor vehicles and buses. [STAT_CONC_DEF] ROAD TRAFFIC IRTAD - Data are calculated using automatic and manual roadside traffic counts.

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) was created in the United States by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to provide an overall measure of highway safety, to help suggest solutions, and to help provide an objective basis to evaluate the effectiveness of motor vehicle safety standards and highway safety programs.

FARS contains data on a census of fatal traffic crashes within the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. To be included in FARS, a crash must involve a motor vehicle traveling on a trafficway customarily open to the public and result in the death of a person (occupant of a vehicle or a non-occupant) within 30 days of the crash. FARS has been operational since 1975 and has collected information on over 989,451 motor vehicle fatalities and collects information on over 100 different coded data elements that characterizes the crash, the vehicle, and the people involved.

FARS is vital to the mission of NHTSA to reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes and deaths on our nation's highways, and subsequently, reduce the associated economic loss to society resulting from those motor vehicle crashes and fatalities. FARS data is critical to understanding the characteristics of the environment, trafficway, vehicles, and persons involved in the crash.

NHTSA has a cooperative agreement with an agency in each state government to provide information in a standard format on fatal crashes in the state. Data is collected, coded and submitted into a micro-computer data system and transmitted to Washington, D.C. Quarterly files are produced for analytical purposes to study trends and evaluate the effectiveness highway safety programs.

Content

There are 40 separate data tables. You can find the manual, which is too large to reprint in this space, here.

Querying BigQuery tables

You can use the BigQuery Python client library to query tables in this dataset in Kernels. Note that methods available in Kernels are limited to querying data. Tables are at bigquery-public-data.nhtsa_traffic_fatalities.[TABLENAME]. Fork this kernel to get started.

Acknowledgements

This dataset was provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

United States US: Road Fatalities: Per One Million Road Motor Vehicles data was reported at 120.615 Ratio in 2019. This records a decrease from the previous number of 123.083 Ratio for 2018. United States US: Road Fatalities: Per One Million Road Motor Vehicles data is updated yearly, averaging 165.059 Ratio from Dec 1994 (Median) to 2019, with 26 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 212.199 Ratio in 1995 and a record low of 118.903 Ratio in 2014. United States US: Road Fatalities: Per One Million Road Motor Vehicles data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.ITF: Road Traffic and Road Accident Fatalities: OECD Member: Annual. VEHICLES The stock of road motor vehicles is the number of road motor vehicles registered at a given date in a country and licenced to use roads open to public traffic. This includes road vehicles exempted from annual taxes or licence fee; it also includes imported second-hand vehicles and other road vehicles according to national practices. It should not include military vehicles.; ROAD FATALITIES A road fatality is any person killed immediately or dying within 30 days as a result of an injury accident, excluding suicides. A killed person is excluded if the competent authority declares the cause of death to be suicide, i.e. a deliberate act to injure oneself resulting in death. For countries that do not apply the threshold of 30 days, conversion coefficients are estimated so that comparison on the basis of the 30-day definition can be made. VEHICLES A road motor vehicle is a road vehicle fitted with an engine whence it derives its sole means of propulsion, which is normally used for carrying persons or goods or for drawing, on the road, vehicles used for the carriage of persons or goods.; VEHICLES Motor vehicle refers to any motorised (mechanically or electronically powered) road vehicle not operated on rail.

Dataset Card for US Accidents (2016 - 2021)

  Dataset Summary





  Description

This is a countrywide car accident dataset, which covers 49 states of the USA. The accident data are collected from February 2016 to Dec 2021, using multiple APIs that provide streaming traffic incident (or event) data. These APIs broadcast traffic data captured by a variety of entities, such as the US and state departments of transportation, law enforcement agencies, traffic cameras, and… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/nateraw/us-accidents.

United States US: Road Fatalities: 30 days data was reported at 10,555.000 Person in Sep 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 10,010.000 Person for Jun 2024. United States US: Road Fatalities: 30 days data is updated quarterly, averaging 9,290.000 Person from Mar 2005 (Median) to Sep 2024, with 79 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11,897.000 Person in Sep 2005 and a record low of 6,726.000 Person in Mar 2011. United States US: Road Fatalities: 30 days data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.ITF: Road Traffic and Road Accident Fatalities: OECD Member: Quarterly. [COVERAGE] Number of road fatalities is defined as the number of road deaths in the 30 days following the accident. [COVERAGE] Between 2015 and 2017, quarterly and annual totals include people that have their death month listed as unknown. [STAT_CONC_DEF] Until 2003, data are not available. In 2004, quarterly data are not available. Until 2005, monthly data are not available.

In 2022, 20,908 drivers were killed in U.S. road traffic fatalities. The number of road traffic fatalities in the United States by person type in 2022 exceeds 42,500 in total.

Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents: Dead data was reported at 2,952.000 Unit in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 3,031.000 Unit for 2016. Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents: Dead data is updated yearly, averaging 1,907.500 Unit from Dec 1998 (Median) to 2017, with 20 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3,335.000 Unit in 2011 and a record low of 262.000 Unit in 1998. Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents: Dead data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Brazilian Association of Highway Concessionaires. The data is categorized under Brazil Premium Database’s Automobile Sector – Table BR.RAW008: Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents. The Brazilian Association of Highway Concessionaires-ABCR represents the highway concession sector.

Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents: Wounded Victims: Paraná data was reported at 5,601.000 Unit in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 5,764.000 Unit for 2016. Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents: Wounded Victims: Paraná data is updated yearly, averaging 6,512.500 Unit from Dec 1998 (Median) to 2017, with 20 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 7,098.000 Unit in 2012 and a record low of 2,884.000 Unit in 1998. Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents: Wounded Victims: Paraná data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Brazilian Association of Highway Concessionaires. The data is categorized under Brazil Premium Database’s Automobile Sector – Table BR.RAW008: Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents. The Brazilian Association of Highway Concessionaires-ABCR represents the highway concession sector.

The statistics on road traffic accidents with personal injury (persons injured or killed) records all accidents occurring on roads with public traffic in Austria. The accident data is recorded electronically by the police authorities and an extract relevant for the statistic is transmitted daily to Statistics Austria by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The objective is to continuously monitor accidents on Austrian roads in order to provide reliable data for research and accident prevention.

The results are published quarterly (preliminary data) and annually (final data).

Vietnam VN: Mortality Caused by Road Traffic Injury: per 100,000 People data was reported at 24.000 Number in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 23.500 Number for 2010. Vietnam VN: Mortality Caused by Road Traffic Injury: per 100,000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 23.300 Number from Dec 2000 (Median) to 2015, with 4 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 24.000 Number in 2015 and a record low of 22.200 Number in 2005. Vietnam VN: Mortality Caused by Road Traffic Injury: per 100,000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Vietnam – Table VN.World Bank.WDI: Health Statistics. Mortality caused by road traffic injury is estimated road traffic fatal injury deaths per 100,000 population.; ; World Health Organization, Global Status Report on Road Safety.; Weighted average;

Brazil Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents: Accidents: São Paulo data was reported at 36,588.000 Unit in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 36,068.000 Unit for 2016. Brazil Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents: Accidents: São Paulo data is updated yearly, averaging 28,034.500 Unit from Dec 1998 (Median) to 2017, with 20 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 41,810.000 Unit in 2011 and a record low of 9,737.000 Unit in 1998. Brazil Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents: Accidents: São Paulo data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Brazilian Association of Highway Concessionaires. The data is categorized under Brazil Premium Database’s Automobile Sector – Table BR.RAW008: Highways Statistics: Traffic Accidents. The Brazilian Association of Highway Concessionaires-ABCR represents the highway concession sector.