*This article was last updated on 2nd October 2025 with the latest data.
Car accidents are the third-leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
There are 39,345 people killed in car crashes every year in the United States, according to the latest data for 2024 from the NHTSA. This works out as:
- 1 person killed in a car accident every 13 minutes
- 5 people killed in car crashes every hour
- 108 people killed in car accidents every day
Reducing deaths from motor vehicle crashes is one of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ key goals in the Healthy People 2030 agenda. Motor vehicle accidents rank as the 13th leading cause of death for American citizens – but they are the leading cause of preventable death for people aged 15 to 24.
As a top car accident law firm in Los Angeles, Los Justicieros regularly handles serious auto accident injury cases including paralysis, brain injuries and wrongful death. While we’ve secured case results up to $6 million for our clients, we hope the information on this page helps to raise awareness about just how many unnecessary car accidents there are each day in the United States.
Daily car accident statistics
How many car accidents per day?
There are 16,817 car accidents per day in the United States.¹
How many people injured in car accidents each day?
There are 6,692 people injured every day in car crashes in the United States.¹
How many people die from car accidents each day?
There are 108 people killed each day in motor vehicle accidents in the United States.²
Yearly car accident statistics
How many car accidents each year?
There are 6.14 million motor vehicle collisions each year in the US.¹
How many people injured each year in car accidents?
As many as 2,442,581 people injured every year in car accidents in the United States.¹
How many people die each year from car accidents?
There are 39,345 deaths caused by car accidents every year in the United States, according to the latest available data for 2024.²
Top causes of car accidents
What is the leading cause of fatal car accidents?
Speeding is the leading cause of fatal car accidents in the United States. It is recorded as the contributing factor for 10,739 drivers involved in fatal crashes – or 18.5% of the total number of driver-related factors in fatal crashes.¹
Top 5 causes of fatal car accidents
The top five causes of fatal car accidents in the US are speeding, driving under the influence, careless driving, failure to yield and improper lane usage. The breakdown is as follows:
- Speeding is the number one cause of fatal car accidents in the United States.¹
- Driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or medication is the second-leading cause of fatal car accidents. It is recorded as a contributing factor for 5,842 drivers involved in fatal crashes, or 10.1% of all fatal accidents.¹
- Careless driving is the third-leading cause of fatal vehicle accidents. It is recorded as a contributing factor for 4,779 drivers involved in fatal crashes, or 8.2% of the total.¹
- Failure to yield right-of-way is the fourth-leading cause of fatal car crashes. It is recorded as a contributing factor for 4,584 drivers involved in fatal accidents (7.9% of total).¹
- Improper lane usage is the fifth-leading cause of fatal car crashes. It is recorded as a contributing factor for 3,230 drivers involved in fatal accidents (5.6% of total).¹
Many people think distracted driving is a leading cause of fatal car accidents. But distracted driving is the 6th leading cause of fatal car accidents in the US. This means that actions such as talking on the phone, texting, eating or interacting with objects are also the sixth-leading cause of fatal car accidents.
Distracted driving is named as a contributing factor for 3,143 drivers involved in fatal accidents in the United States, or 5.4% of the total.¹
Most common types of car accidents
What is the most common type of car accidents?
Rear-end collisions are the most common type of car accidents in the United States, with 1,748,481 each year (28.5% of all car accidents).¹
What is the most common type of fatal car accidents?
Angle collisions (also known as side-impact collisions) are the leading cause of fatal accidents n the US, leading to 7,044 fatalities or 18.7% of the total.¹
Where do most fatal car accidents happen?
Most fatal car accidents happen on urban arterial roads in the United States. There are 15,244 fatalities caused by car crashes on urban arterial roads each year – or 39% of the total.¹
Top Questions About Car Accidents Answered
What percent of people die in car accidents?
Roughly 1.7% of all people injured in car accidents end up as fatalities.
This is based on 40,901 killed in car accidents in the US each year, compared to 2,442,581 people injured in car accidents in the US each year.¹
What percent of car accidents are fatal?
Around 0.6% of all car crashes lead to fatalities.
This is based on 37,654 fatal crashes recorded each year in the United States, and a total of 6,138,359 car accidents.¹
Are car accidents a leading cause of death in the US?
Car accidents are the 13th-leading cause of death in the United States.
That said, car accidents are the third-leading cause of preventable death in the US. And they are the leading cause of preventable death for people in the 15 to 24 year age groups.³⁴
What age group has the most fatal car accidents in the United States?
The 25-34 age group has the most people killed and injured in car accidents in the United States. This age group sees 7,583 deaths (18.5% of total) and 502,012 injuries (20.6%) every year.¹
Are car accidents increasing in the United States?
The number of car accidents is increasing every year in the United States. There were 6.14 million car crashes in 2023, up 2.9% from 5.93 million car crashes in 2022.¹
Are car accident fatalities increasing in the United States?
The number of car accident fatalities is decreasing every year in the United States. There were 39,345 people killed in car accidents in 2024, down -3.8% from 40,901 people killed in 2023.¹ ²
Overall, the number of people killed in car accidents in the United States has fallen from a record high of 54,589 fatalities in 1972 down to 39,345 in 2024.¹ ²
What percentage of collisions are single car accidents?
Roughly 29.2% of all recorded collisions are single vehicle car accidents. In total, there are 1.79 million single-vehicle accidents and 4.35 million multi-vehicle car accidents every year in the United States.¹
SOURCES
1. National Center for Statistics and Analysis. (2025, August). Traffic safety facts 2023: A compilation of motor vehicle traffic crash data (Report No. DOT HS 813 738). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813738
2. National Center for Statistics and Analysis. (2025, April). Early estimate of motor vehicle traffic fatalities in 2024 (Traffic Safety Facts Crash•Stats Brief Statistical Summary. Report No. DOT HS 813 710). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
3. Heron, M. (2019, June 24). Deaths: Leading causes for 2017 (National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 68, No. 6). National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
4. National Safety Council. (n.d.). Top 10 preventable injuries. In Deaths by demographics. Injury Facts. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/
