Car Accident Statistics For 2023 (2023)

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Car Accident Statistics For 2023? ›

Fatal Car Accident Victims

These crashes resulted in a total of 38,824 deaths. With so many fatalities occurring, Forbes Advisor calculated one fatal car accident occurs every 15 minutes in the United States. Sadly, the number of fatal accidents is on the rise.

Fatal Car Accident Victims

These crashes resulted in a total of 38,824 deaths. With so many fatalities occurring, Forbes Advisor calculated one fatal car accident occurs every 15 minutes in the United States. Sadly, the number of fatal accidents is on the rise.

This is 37% higher than the national average, and according to the statistics alone, South Carolina drivers may therefore cause the most accidents in the country. That state also records 1.97 traffic fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

Number of Car Accidents Per Year

There are over 2 million car accidents a year in the US according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Roughly 42,915 people died in a fatal car crash in the US in 2021. Speeding accounts for more than 30 car accidents per day.

1. South Carolina. With a 12% at-fault accident rate, South Carolina drivers cause the most accidents in the country in 2022. Unlike Massachusetts, however, the Palmetto State also has the highest traffic fatality rate in the nation.

Car crashes remain a leading cause of death in the United States, with over 40,000 fatalities occurring annually. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), your chances of dying in a car crash are about one in 103 for any given year. That means at least one death out of every 103 people on the road.

What age group has the most fatal car accidents? The age group with the most fatal crashes is drivers between the ages of 25 and 34. There are nearly 1,000 more deaths per year among 25- to 34-year-olds than drivers under 25.

Who Gets Into More Car Accidents? Statistics show that males get into more accidents than women every year. Men cause about 6.1 million accidents per year and women cause 4.4 million accidents per year, according to the National Highway Safety Administration.

States with the most car accidents

In 2020, the following states reported the highest numbers of fatal car accidents in the U.S.: California: 3,847 deaths out of 3,558 accidents. Texas: 3,874 deaths out of 3,520 accidents. Florida: 3,331 deaths out of 2,950 accidents.

Rhode Island

With a population of just over 1 million, Rhode Island had only 57 fatalities from car accidents in 2019.

What time of day do most fatal car accidents occur? ›

According to IIHS, fatality accidents are most likely to occur in the 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. time range. Over 14,000 people were killed during this 2 hour period in a recent year. However, as a percentage of people on the road, 12:00 A.M. to 4 A.M. is the most deadly timeframe for driving.

How many car accidents happen each year? There were 5,250,873 police-reported car accidents in 2020, according to the NHTSA. That averages out to 14,386 accidents per day, or one crash every six minutes.

#1 Distracted Driving

Distracted driving leads to reduced reaction time, inability to keep a vehicle in its own lane, and catastrophic accidents resulting in serious injury and death. We are all at risk every time a driver looks at a cell phone or takes their attention from the road while behind the wheel.

Which U.S. City Has the Most Car Accidents? Baltimore, Maryland, ranks as the city with the most automobile accidents in the US. Drivers in Baltimore average one collision every 4.19 years, and there are 38.58 hard-breaking occurrences per 1,000 miles compared to the national average.

While motorists in the south face a higher collision risk, many of their northern neighbors enjoy safer roadways. In fact, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York and Delaware are all on the list of safest states to drive in, so motorists here are least likely to find themselves involved in an auto accident lawsuit.

Teenagers. Teen drivers are among the most likely to get into an auto accident. Statistics show that, per mile driven, teen drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 are three times more likely than drivers over the age of 20 to be in a fatal auto accident.

While you will likely be injured in a collision, you will almost always survive. The survival rate for auto accidents is remarkably high, given modern vehicle safety standards like seat belts and airbags, so there should be little reason to fear driving. That means there is only a 0.99% death rate for car crashes.

In fact, 1/5, or 20% of all people killed in traffic accidents in California are pedestrians. Unfortunately, your chances of being hit by a car or truck and suffering injury are sixteen times higher (32 in 100,000).

Which Age Group Has the Lowest Car Accident Rate? While much focus is on the age group with the highest crash risk, one age group has the lowest death rates and crash rates among drivers. Drivers between the ages of 40 and 50 are statistically the safest on the road.

What is the greatest contributor to collisions? ›

The most common age for car accidents to occur is between 16 and 17. The average age you can get your driver's license in the United States is 16, so this statistic makes sense. These new drivers aren't quite experts at driving yet.

Although women tend to be safer drivers, there is an evident gender gap in car safety. The IIHS study found that even though crashes involving men are more severe, it's women who are more often injured or killed in crashes of equal severity.

Generally, men text while driving more than women. According to the NHTSA, 19% of men and 17% of women text while driving. Although both genders recognize the dangers of distracted driving, men often text and drive because they consider themselves skilled drivers.

Vehicle crash tests are only legally required to use dummies shaped like the average man. Scientists in Sweden have produced the world's first female crash test dummy that reflects the differences between the male and female anatomy.

When looking at collisions between motor vehicles, angle collisions cause the greatest number of deaths (about 9,000 in 2021). The interactive chart also shows the estimated number of deaths, injuries, fatal crashes, injury crashes, and all crashes for various types of motor-vehicle crashes.

Luxury SUVs had the lowest death rates in the three-year study by the highway safety research organization. Small cars had the highest.

Intersections. Around 15 percent of fatal car crashes occur in intersections, while the remaining 85 percent take place on the open road. However, many non-fatal car crashes do take place in intersections as a result of improper left turns, violations of traffic laws, speeding, and distracted driving.

The most dangerous time to be on the road is between 8 p.m. and 12 a.m. during the spring and summer, and between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. during the fall and winter months. Why? It's simple: driving at night brings a lot of challenges, namely lower visibility and the unavoidable end-of-day tiredness.

What month has the most fatal car accidents? ›

However, this isn't true. The most common time of year for car accidents is over the summer months. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, August is the month with the most crashes. Car accidents are also more likely to occur on the weekends.

The most dangerous time to drive during the day is during the evening rush hour. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that this is when most fatal accidents occur. The second most dangerous time is between midnight and four a.m. This is when drunk drivers are most likely to be on the road.

Sit In The Middle Seat

According to the research, the middle back seat is the safest place to sit in a vehicle during impact. A partial reason is that it's the center of the car, so it is the most protected from frontal crashes, side crashes, and rear-end crashes.

Did you know the majority of vehicular accidents occur within 15 miles of drivers' homes? It may be surprising, but accidents are more likely to occur when you're driving in an area that you're more familiar with.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that men cause an average of 6.1 million accidents per year in the US, and women cause 4.4 million accidents per year. Males do 62% of the driving, but only cause 58% of the accidents. So women do cause slightly more accidents per capita than men.

With all of this in mind, according to insurance companies that process claims for accidents, the average person is involved in approximately four accidents throughout the course of his or her life.

According to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the following countries have the most car accidents: United States. Japan. Germany.

Several other studies have produced similar results, and every study that we know of shows that the percentage of car accidents that are caused by human error is at least 90%.

Automated vehicles' potential to save lives and reduce injuries is rooted in one critical and tragic fact: 94% of serious crashes are due to human error.

Memphis, Tenn., is the most dangerous for drivers

Memphis tops the list of riskiest cities for U.S. drivers, according to our analysis. It ranks No. 1 when it comes to fatal car accidents per capita and No. 1 for people involved in fatal crashes per capita.

What city has the least accidents? ›

On the flip side, Brownsville, Texas, drivers were crowned the nation's safest for the second consecutive year, averaging about 15 years between crashes, according to the report.

Common Causes of Car Accidents Due to Driver Error

Most traffic accidents don't necessarily have to do with knowing how to drive a vehicle but more so which decisions the driver makes behind the wheel. In fact, about 94% of all road accidents are caused by human error.

Using weighted rankings, it assessed factors such as the cost of car ownership and maintenance, traffic, safety and accessibility to cars and upkeep. Hawaii ranks at No. 1 for the worst state to drive in. Washington follows at No.

Salem, Oregon, has the highest number of aggressive drivers in the U.S. According to Insurify's data, 22.6% of drivers in the city have an incident on their record. Specifically, 12.5% of drivers have a speeding ticket, 11.5% of drivers have an accident, and just over 2% of drivers have been convicted of a DUI.

That NHTSA notes that this data indicates there are on average 99 fatalities every day from a car accident. There are 7,507 people injured in the United States in car accidents every day.

Each year, 1.35 million people are killed on roadways around the world. Every day, almost 3,700 people are killed globally in crashes involving cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, trucks, or pedestrians. More than half of those killed are pedestrians, motorcyclists, or cyclists.

There were 35,766 fatal accidents in the U.S. in 2020. Those accidents resulted in 38,824 deaths, or 106 car accident deaths per day. One out of every 147 accidents is fatal — that's 0.7%.

Which U.S. City Has the Most Car Accidents? Baltimore, Maryland, ranks as the city with the most automobile accidents in the US. Drivers in Baltimore average one collision every 4.19 years, and there are 38.58 hard-breaking occurrences per 1,000 miles compared to the national average.

Rear-End Collisions: the Most Common Type of Accident

As their name suggests, rear-end collisions occur when one vehicle strikes the back of another vehicle, says the NHTSA.

Which type of accident causes the most deaths in the US? ›

When looking at collisions between motor vehicles, angle collisions cause the greatest number of deaths (about 9,000 in 2021).

1. Mississippi. As we mentioned earlier, Mississippi is the state with the most deaths per 100,000 people from car accidents.

Internal injuries are the most common injuries that cause death in car accidents. These injuries include traumatic brain injuries from head trauma or damage to internal organs.

Among states, Mississippi had the highest death rate (956.1), followed by West Virginia (953.2), Alabama (933.6), and Oklahoma (910.9). Hawaii had the lowest death rate (584.9), followed by California (641.3), Minnesota (659.2), and Connecticut (660.6).

In a collision during which a person dies on impact, the death is usually caused by severe trauma to vital organs, such as the brain and the heart. This impact is often caused when a car slams into an immovable object at high speed, like a wall or tree.

Flying is still considered to be the safest way to travel, but accidents can happen. Roughly, there are between 70-90 plane crashes per year worldwide, including both commercial planes and privately-owned ones.

9% of all police-reported distraction-affected crashes, or about 50,098 accidents in total.

Memphis tops the list of riskiest cities for U.S. drivers, according to our analysis. It ranks No. 1 when it comes to fatal car accidents per capita and No. 1 for people involved in fatal crashes per capita.

One study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety revealed that drivers and passengers of pickup trucks are 2.5 times more likely to suffer fatal injuries in a traffic accident.

States with the least car accidents

Alaska: 53 deaths out of 64 accidents. Vermont: 62 deaths out of 58 accidents. Rhode Island: 67 deaths out of 66 accidents. Hawaii: 85 deaths out of 81 accidents.