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Fatal crash (FARS definition)

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A fatal crash in NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, or FARS, is a traffic crash that satisfies defined vehicle, trafficway and death-timing conditions. The national figures illustrate this fatal-only scope: in 2024, the United States recorded 36,297 fatal crashes and 39,254 people killed. These figures cover the 50 states and the District of Columbia and come from the provisional 2024 Annual Report File. They describe qualifying crashes and deaths separately, rather than all car accidents, and the definition does not restrict the selection to passenger vehicles.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Contents

Official definition

NHTSA's Overview of Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes in 2024, page 14, defines inclusion through a motor vehicle traveling on a trafficway customarily open to the public and the death of a vehicle occupant or nonoccupant within 30 days of the crash. The timing requirement concerns when the person dies, not when a report is filed. Public access concerns customary use of the trafficway rather than ownership by a public agency. The official wording describes a traffic crash and expressly allows the qualifying death to be that of a nonoccupant.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

National figures

The national illustrative series selects all FARS fatal crashes and reports people killed in those crashes as a separate measure. Fatal crashes rose from 35,935 in 2020 to 39,785 in 2021, then fell to 39,422 in 2022, 37,769 in 2023 and 36,297 in 2024. Among the supplied years, 2021 had the highest fatal crash count and the highest death count, with 43,230 people killed. The lowest count for each measure occurred in 2020, with 35,935 fatal crashes and 39,007 people killed. These are counts, not population rates.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

National figures[1][2][3][4][5]
YearFatal crashesPeople killed
202035,93539,007
202139,78543,230
202239,42242,721
202337,76941,025
202436,29739,254

United States, 50 states and the District of Columbia. 2024 is the FARS Annual Report File.

What the term does not tell you

The operational selection applies the FARS inclusion conditions across the national fatal-crash data; it adds no car-only filter. Consequently, the figures cannot be read as a passenger-car crash subset or as a tally of crashes without a death. A death count measures people, while a fatal crash count measures events, and neither is a vehicle count. The provisional 2024 Annual Report File remains subject to revision in the Final File. No population denominator or population rate is supplied.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

On related publications

References

  1. abcde "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2020 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  2. abcde "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2021 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  3. abcde "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2022 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  4. abcde "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2023 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  5. abcde "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2024 national data files (Annual Report File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  6. abcd "Fatality Analysis Reporting System Analytical User's Manual, 1975-2024 (DOT HS 813 794)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  7. abcd "Overview of motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2024 (DOT HS 813 791, April 2026)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record