Fatal crash rate in Clay County, Missouri

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

Clay County, Missouri2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

9.1fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 24 fatal crashes in Clay County, Missouri, where 262,674 people lived. That is 9.1 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 29 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 6.9.

010203040

Missouri 14.1

US 10.7

Clay County 9.1

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

Per 100,000: 24 fatal crashes ÷ 262,674 residents × 100,000 = 9.1
Five-year: 89 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 1,289,676 resident-years × 100,000 = 6.9
Same year: Missouri: 882 ÷ 6,243,544 = 14.1 · United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

US 10.7

5.5

7.8

5.4

6.5

9.1

20202021202220232024

Bars: this place, fatal crashes per 100,000 residents. Dashed line: the United States in the latest year. Source: NHTSA FARS and Census population estimates, each year.

Year	Fatal crashes	Deaths	Population	Per 100,000
2020	14	16	254,121	5.5
2021	20	21	255,910	7.8
2022	14	15	257,034	5.4
2023	17	18	259,937	6.5
2024	24	29	262,674	9.1

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 89 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Clay County, Missouri over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road type	Crashes	Share
Interstate	16	18%
Other freeway or expressway	14	16%
Other principal arterial	17	19%
Minor arterial	11	12%
Major collector	11	12%
Minor collector	1	1%
Local road	11	12%
Unknown or not reported	8	9%
Rural	11	12%
Urban	75	84%

Time of day	Crashes	Share
Midnight to 5:59 am	23	26%
6 am to 11:59 am	17	19%
Noon to 5:59 pm	18	20%
6 pm to 11:59 pm	31	35%
Hour unknown	0	0%

Light	Crashes	Share
Daylight	34	38%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)	32	36%
Dark, lighted	22	25%
Dawn or dusk	1	1%
Unknown or not reported	0	0%

Weather	Crashes	Share
Clear	67	75%
Cloudy	16	18%
Rain	4	4%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain	0	0%
Fog, smog or smoke	2	2%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other	0	0%
Unknown or not reported	0	0%

Involving	Crashes	Share
A pedestrian	9	10%
A bicyclist or other cyclist	2	2%
A speeding-related vehicle	40	45%
A driver police reported as drinking	22	25%

Most-named roads	Crashes
US-169	8
SR-210	7
US-69	6
I-35	6
I-435	5

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.