CrashRate

Fatal crash rate · Kentucky

Fatal crash rate in Meade County, Kentucky

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

Meade County, Kentucky2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

16.4fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 5 fatal crashes in Meade County, Kentucky, where 30,497 people lived. That is 16.4 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 5 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 23.9.

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

Per 100,000
5 fatal crashes ÷ 30,497 residents × 100,000 = 16.4
Five-year
36 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 150,914 resident-years × 100,000 = 23.9
Same year
Kentucky: 663 ÷ 4,584,046 = 14.5 · United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

YearFatal crashesDeathsPopulationPer 100,000
20206930,03020.0
2021111230,15036.5
202291030,04830.0
20235530,18916.6
20245530,49716.4

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 36 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Meade County, Kentucky over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road typeCrashesShare
Interstate00%
Other freeway or expressway00%
Other principal arterial411%
Minor arterial1644%
Major collector514%
Minor collector514%
Local road617%
Unknown or not reported00%
Rural3186%
Urban514%
Time of dayCrashesShare
Midnight to 5:59 am38%
6 am to 11:59 am719%
Noon to 5:59 pm1850%
6 pm to 11:59 pm822%
Hour unknown00%
LightCrashesShare
Daylight2261%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)1131%
Dark, lighted13%
Dawn or dusk26%
Unknown or not reported00%
WeatherCrashesShare
Clear2056%
Cloudy1028%
Rain38%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain26%
Fog, smog or smoke13%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other00%
Unknown or not reported00%
InvolvingCrashesShare
A pedestrian13%
A bicyclist or other cyclist00%
A speeding-related vehicle411%
A driver police reported as drinking514%
Most-named roadsCrashes
SR-313 JOE PRATHER HWY5
SR-793
SR-16382
SR-1882 FORT AVE2
US-602

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.