Every day, people die or get injured in car wrecks. While some of these wrecks truly are unavoidable, the vast majority could be avoided if the drivers stay alert, keep their attention on the road, and take the proper precautions while driving.
If you don’t think that you would ever become a victim in a car wreck, take a look at these statistics. All of these accidents happened in Texas throughout 2017.
Total Number of Car Wrecks and Fatalities in 2017
In 2017, there were 422,695 car accidents in Texas. That means that there was an average of about 1,158 car accidents per day. 16-year-olds were the drivers in just over 10,000 of these accidents. The number of accidents by age rises to a peak at 21 (27,687) and then steadily declines.
Texas saw 3,342 fatal crashes in 2017, leading to 3,721 fatalities. This means that about 8 out of every 1000 car crashes led to one or more people dying. In addition to being the most likely to cause accidents, 21-year-olds are the most likely to die in car accidents. Males are more than 3x as likely to be the driver who dies in a fatal accident than women are (1799 vs 529 deaths in 2017).
Unsurprisingly – as home to Houston, the largest city in Texas – Harris County was the location of the largest number of fatal accidents. In 2017, there were 430 fatal crashes in the Houston area. Dallas County experienced 273 fatal car accidents, and Tarrant County experienced 168.
Most Dangerous Cities in Texas
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Houston (65,234)
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San Antonio (43,951)
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Dallas (32,059)
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El Paso (16,665)
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Fort Worth (16,446)
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Austin (15,319)
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Corpus Christi (8,896)
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Arlington (6,788)
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Plano (5,669)
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Lubbock (5,606)
Of course, these are raw numbers and don’t take into account the population size of each city. Once you calculate in population size, San Antonio was the most dangerous city with 30 accidents per 1000 people. Austin was the safest of the cities listed above with 16 car wrecks per 1000 people.
Most Dangerous Cities in Dallas/Fort Worth
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Dallas (32,059)
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Fort Worth (16,446)
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Arlington (6,788)
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Plano (5,669)
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Irving (3,434)
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Grand Prairie (3,429)
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Denton (3,287)
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Lewisville (2,676)
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Garland (2,328)
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Richardson (2,094)
The first four are unsurprising considering the fact that they made it onto the list of most accidents in the whole state. If we calculate in population size, then Lewisville is the most dangerous with around 26 car accidents per 1000 people, and Garland is the safest with only 1 auto accident per 1000 people.
Drunk Driving Related Auto Accidents
Drunk driving was the cause of 23,760 car crashes in 2017, which is only about 5.6% of the total. However, drunk drivers caused 910 of the fatal crashes, which is 27% of the total number. In addition, around 38% of the drivers who died in auto accidents were drunk.
Sadly, drunk drivers were not the only victims of their poor decisions. Around ⅓ of those who died in drunk driving accidents were not the drunk driver themselves; 346 passengers, people in other cars, cyclists, and pedestrians were killed by drunk drivers in 2017. This means that close to 10% of car crash fatalities in 2017 were victims of drunk drivers.
And in an unfortunate trend, the age of the drivers who caused the most drunk driving accidents (1,117) was 21.
If you’re one of the many Texas residents who has been the victim in a car accident, call Ted Machi & Associates today. They’ll make sure that you get reimbursed for any damages and injuries that you have incurred due to another driver’s actions.