Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year



Fatalities that result from motor vehicle crashes are the second largest cause of accidental deaths in the United States.

Motor vehicle fatalities in the United States are reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NHTSA only reports deaths that occur on public roads, and does not include parking lots, driveways, and private roads. It also excludes indirect car-related fatalities. For more details, see Transportation safety in the United States.

From the beginning of recorded statistics until the 1970s, total traffic deaths in the United States generally trended upwards, except during the Great Depression and World War II. From 1979 to 2005, the number of deaths per year decreased 14.97% while the number of deaths per capita decreased by 35.46%. The 32,479 traffic fatalities in 2011 were the lowest in 62 years, since 1949. For 2016, the NHTSA reported 37,461 people killed in 34,436 fatal motor vehicle crashes, an average of 102 per day. In 2022, there were 42,795 total motor vehicle fatalities.