Wyoming Ranks Highest in Fatal Highway Accidents

A new study has revealed the states that have the highest rate of fatal highway accidents.

The study, by personal injury law firm Scott Vicknair, used data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) from 2017 to 2021 to determine which states have the highest rate of driver fatalities occurring on highways.

Wyoming takes first place on the list, with a rate of 24.62 deaths per 100,000 people. By far the highest rate on the list, Wyoming sees a highway fatality rate almost triple that of the national average of 9.16 deaths per 100,000 people. Of all traffic fatalities within the state, over a quarter (26.25%) occurred on highways.

Second place goes to New Mexico, where fatal highway accidents account for 17.85 deaths per 100,000 residents, which is more than double that of the national average. Fatal accidents on the highway made up 20.4% of all road-related fatalities within the state, 378 out of the 1,853 fatal road accidents.

Missouri ranks in third place, with a fatal highway accident rate of 15.45 per 100,000 people – almost double that of the national average. Missouri saw 4,377 fatal road accidents, with a staggering 21.73% (951) of these deaths occurring on highways.

Close behind in fourth place is Montana. The state saw a fatal highway accident rate of 15.4 deaths per 100,000 people, a 68.12% increase over the national average. Of the 914 fatal accidents on Montana roads, 18.27% (167) occurred on highways.

Arkansas ranks in fifth place, with a fatal highway accident rate of 14.11 deaths per 100,000 people. Arkansas saw a total of 2,644 fatal road accidents over the time period, with 425 of those occurring on a highway. The fatal highway death rate in Arkansas is a 54% increase over the national average.

Mississippi comes in at sixth place, with a fatal highway accident rate of 13.68 deaths per 100,000 people, an almost 50% (49.34%) increase over the national average (9.12 deaths per 100,000 people).

Alaska comes in at seventh place, with a fatal highway accident death rate of 13.36 per 100,000 people.

Texas places eighth, with a fatal highway accident rate of 13.15 deaths per 100,000 people. The state has the second-highest number of total fatal road accidents of all states, at 17,549 deaths, and 21.85% (3,434) of these occurred on highways.

The remainder of the top ten features Louisiana in at ninth place, where fatal highway accident rates were 12.75 deaths per 100,000 people. South Carolina takes the tenth spot on the list, with a fatal highway accident rate of 12.37 deaths per 100,000 people.

Hawaii proved to be the state with the safest highways nationwide, with a fatal highway accident rate of just 2.75 deaths per 100,000 people. Out of a total of 719 fatal road accidents, only 8.28% (40) occurred on highways.

The most recent data was scraped from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) between 2017 and 2021. Data was filtered by state to find the number of driver fatalities occurring on different road types. The total number of highway fatalities was calculated as a rate per 100,000 deaths using state population data over the five-year period for each state in order to account for the differences in state population size.