CrashRate

Fatal crash rate · California

Fatal crash rate in Madera County, California

Fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA in Madera County, California, 2020 to 2024, divided by the people who live there. Fatal crashes only: not injuries, not all crashes, not traffic in general.

Madera County, California2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

15.7fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 26 fatal crashes in Madera County, California, where 166,132 people lived. That is 15.7 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 33 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 19.4.

The road is a scale of fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024, 0 to 40. The yellow post is Madera County; the white posts are California and the United States.

Per 100,000
26 fatal crashes ÷ 166,132 residents × 100,000 = 15.7
Five-year
156 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 805,549 resident-years × 100,000 = 19.4
Same year
California: 3,583 ÷ 39,364,774 = 9.1 · United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

YearFatal crashesDeathsPopulationPer 100,000
20202830156,39617.9
20213640159,01222.6
20224148160,37725.6
20232528163,63215.3
20242633166,13215.7

2024 is NHTSA’s Annual Report File and will be revised when the final file replaces it. Populations are July 1 estimates, Census Vintage 2025.

What the record says about those crashes, 2020 to 2024

Every figure is a count of the 156 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Madera County, California over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road typeCrashesShare
Interstate00%
Other freeway or expressway2315%
Other principal arterial3120%
Minor arterial5133%
Major collector3120%
Minor collector21%
Local road1812%
Unknown or not reported00%
Rural10467%
Urban5233%
Time of dayCrashesShare
Midnight to 5:59 am4126%
6 am to 11:59 am2113%
Noon to 5:59 pm3422%
6 pm to 11:59 pm5435%
Hour unknown64%
LightCrashesShare
Daylight5535%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)6542%
Dark, lighted2516%
Dawn or dusk117%
Unknown or not reported00%
WeatherCrashesShare
Clear13788%
Cloudy64%
Rain53%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain00%
Fog, smog or smoke53%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other00%
Unknown or not reported32%
InvolvingCrashesShare
A pedestrian3019%
A bicyclist or other cyclist43%
A speeding-related vehicle4428%
A driver police reported as drinking5032%
Most-named roadsCrashes
SR-4120
SR-9918
SR-14513
AVENUE 1210
SR-1525

Road type is FARS FUNC_SYS; speeding is any vehicle coded SPEEDREL 2 to 5; drinking is any driver coded DRINKING = 1 (police-reported, not a blood-alcohol test). Road names are the trafficway strings as the police coded them, counted as written, so the same road can appear under two spellings.

How this is counted

  • Fatal crashes are rows in NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) file FARS2024NationalCSV.zip, accident.csv, one row per crash on a public road in which someone died within 30 days. Deaths are the FATALS field. Counties are the FARS STATE and COUNTY codes joined to Census FIPS codes.
  • Population is the Census Bureau’s July 1 estimate for the same year, county totals, Vintage 2025. Rate per 100,000 = crashes ÷ population × 100,000.
  • The five-year average is total crashes over the years with both inputs ÷ total population over those years × 100,000, the rolling form in 23 CFR 490.207.
  • What it cannot say. FARS has no injury-only or property-damage crashes, no congestion, and nothing about any one driver, trip or road’s risk. A crash is counted where it happened, not where the people lived. Rates are not ranked here; comparing two places means comparing both sets of inputs.

Informational only, not professional advice. Last reviewed: October 2026. Data snapshot built 2026-10-28.