Oklahoma Fatal Crash Statistics
Fatal motor vehicle crashes decreased in most segments across the United States, including in Oklahoma. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fatal accidents in our state fell from a ten-year high of 803 in 2005 to 669 in 2014.
The state saw a decrease in contributing factors such as drunk driving and speeding, and has also realized decreases in pedestrian, bicycle, and motorcycle fatalities, whereas the country as a whole, saw an increase in pedestrian deaths and little change in bicycle deaths.
A closer look at fatal crash data shows that of the 669 traffic deaths, about 500 were occupants of passenger vehicles. Unfortunately, 258 of these occupants were not wearing their seat belts or safety restraints at the time of the accident. The NHTSA estimates that an additional 84 lives could have been saved if all occupants would have worn their seatbelts.
Our partially mandated helmet laws require that only riders under the age of 18 wear a helmet, and the statistics show how dangerous this is. In fact, of the 57 motorcycle riders who were killed in 2014, about 44 were unhelmeted. An estimated 16 more lives could have been saved if all riders had worn a helmet.
Speeding and drunk driving have deadly consequences and even though these two behaviors contributed to less fatal accidents in 2014 than any year in the decade prior, they still take too many lives and hurt too many innocent people. In fact, drunk driving contributed to the deaths of 154 people, and speeding killed another 152 in 2014 alone.
Of all crash types that involved fatalities:
- 402 involved a vehicle leaving the road
- 335 were single-vehicle crashes
- 246 involved a vehicle rollover
- 152 involved at least one speeding driver
- 146 occurred at or near an intersection
- 134 involved at least one large truck
Pedestrian fatalities decreased from 58 in 2013 to 50 in 2014, however, this is an increase from the ten-year low of 32 in 2009. Nationally, pedestrian fatalities rose in 2014 to reach 4,884 deaths or nearly 12 pedestrian deaths every day. Shockingly, 18 percent of these victims were killed in hit-n-run accidents.
Bicyclists fatalities in Oklahoma fell greatly from the 2013 ten-year high of 13 deaths to four in 2014. For comparison, about 726 bicyclists were killed across the nation in 2014, and more than 50,000 were injured in motor vehicle accidents.
Oklahoma’s highways and bi-ways are dangerous. If you have been injured in a car accident or lost a loved one in a fatal crash, you need a dedicated team of attorneys and legal professionals fighting for your rights. Our attorneys have a long and proven record of helping the victims of car accidents get the compensation they deserve.
Call us today if you or a loved one were injured in a-
- Commercial bus crashes
- School bus accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Truck crashes
- Motorcycle collisions
- Commercial vehicle accidents
- Semi-truck crashes
We’ll fight insurance companies, negligent operators, and reckless drivers to get you the maximum compensation you deserve.