Texas – Fatal Car Crash Statistics
According to Texas Department of Transportation, 1 person was killed in a car crash in Texas every 2 hours 20 minutes during 2016. The state experienced a death toll of 3,773 from motor vehicle fatalities in 2016. This is up 5.45 percent from the 3,578 deaths during 2015. The rate of traffic fatality was 1.44 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, up 3.59 percent from 2015. There was a total of 1,942 deaths on rural roads, accounting for 51 percent were on the state traffic fatalities. Out of all these people who perished in passenger vehicles, 43.71 percent were not wearing any sort of safety restraint when the fatal crash occurred.
No Deathless Days
There was at least one roadway death on every calendar day in 2016. October was the deadliest month with 382 people dying in car crashes. Saturday, October 29 and Sunday, February 21 were the deadliest days each seeing 23 killed in traffic accidents.
Fatalities by Crash Type
During 2016, Single vehicles that ran off the road resulted in 1,293 deaths, which is 34.27 percent fatalities on the roads that year. Car crashes at intersections (or related to intersections) killed 814 people, and 638 died in head-on collisions. There were 455 people who died from crashes where the driver was distracted. This is a 5% decrease from 2015.
Mortality Rate by County
Based on statistics collected between 2009 and 2015, Texas had an overall motor vehicle mortality rate of 13 deaths for every 100,000 in population. The worst county by far was Baylor County with 66 dying from car wrecks for every 100,000 people. Collin County was the lowest with a motor vehicle mortality rate of 6.
Driving Under the Influence
In 2016, 987 died in wrecks where a driver was under the influence of alcohol. This makes up 26% of all of the state’s motor vehicle crash mortalities that year. Alcohol-related crash fatalities occurred most often on Saturday than on any other day of the week. More of these accidents happen in the 2:00 AM hour than at any other time of day.
According to data collected between 2011 and 2015, 30 percent of all driving deaths in Texas involved alcohol somehow. Knox County has the highest percentage of alcohol-impaired driving deaths with 100 percent of the reported driving fatalities involving some manner of alcohol use. This includes drivers who had any level of Blood Alcohol Content (BAC), both under and over the legal limit. Harris County had the highest total number of 714 people dying from crashes related to alcohol.
Other Factors
According to data released by U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Texas had 1,105 speeding-related fatalities in 2015—the highest in the U.S.