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A Look Into The Statistics of Auto Accidents and Injuries
Motor vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of injury and death among all age groups in the United States. Thousands of accidents occur throughout the country every day. Many of these accidents lead to serious injury or death. The unfortunate reality is that most accidents are preventable because they are caused by human error. Factors like distracted driving, speeding, failure to obey road signs, reckless driving, and impaired driving cause the majority of roadway accidents.
Current United States Average Collisions Every Year
Reporting agencies take time to gather, analyze, and present traffic data, but in 2020, over 5 million accidents were reported throughout the United States. Of these, over 35,000 resulted in fatalities. Estimations of 2022 totals are approximating that numbers were rising in about 50% of states during the first nine months of the year, with the biggest increase occurring on rural interstates.
In California, there were 187,211 crashes that resulted in injury in 2019, according to the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System. These accidents injured 269,031 people.
Car Accident Fatalities
Any accident has the potential to cause devastating physical, psychological, and financial damage, but many agencies spend significant resources analyzing fatal crashes in an attempt to prevent further loss of life. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) names three major behavioral causes of fatal accidents – speeding, alcohol impairment, and non-use of safety belts. There was an increase in fatal car accidents from 2019 to 2020, which the NHTSA attributes to these three factors.
The graphs below show the patterns throughout both years for all some of these factors.
Each factor experienced a significant jump in June 2020, with a sustained increase from 2019 totals throughout the rest of the year.
The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) reports that:
- Traffic fatalities in the state totaled 4,285 in 2021.
- Alcohol-related fatal accidents increased by approximately 16% from 2020 to 2021.
- Pedestrian and bicycle fatalities both increased from 2020 to 2021, 9.4% and 8% respectively.
OTS also provides traffic accident data for specific localities in California. The numbers of people injured or killed in traffic accidents in 2020 in Costa Mesa and Riverside are shown in the chart below.
