CrashRate

Fatal crash rate · Montana

Fatal crash rate in Big Horn County, Montana

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

Big Horn County, Montana2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

54.5fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 7 fatal crashes in Big Horn County, Montana, where 12,847 people lived. That is 54.5 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 10 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 83.7.

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

Small population. Big Horn County has 12,847 residents, so one crash moves the rate by 7.8 points and a single bad year can double it. Read the five-year average and the count, not the one-year rate alone.
Per 100,000
7 fatal crashes ÷ 12,847 residents × 100,000 = 54.5
Five-year
54 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 64,552 resident-years × 100,000 = 83.7
Same year
Montana: 193 ÷ 1,137,557 = 17.0 · United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

YearFatal crashesDeathsPopulationPer 100,000
2020131613,07999.4
20219912,89369.8
2022162112,873124.3
20239912,86070.0
202471012,84754.5

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 54 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Big Horn County, Montana over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road typeCrashesShare
Interstate1731%
Other freeway or expressway00%
Other principal arterial1120%
Minor arterial00%
Major collector1324%
Minor collector24%
Local road1019%
Unknown or not reported12%
Rural5296%
Urban12%
Time of dayCrashesShare
Midnight to 5:59 am1324%
6 am to 11:59 am59%
Noon to 5:59 pm1833%
6 pm to 11:59 pm1833%
Hour unknown00%
LightCrashesShare
Daylight2648%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)2648%
Dark, lighted00%
Dawn or dusk24%
Unknown or not reported00%
WeatherCrashesShare
Clear3565%
Cloudy1222%
Rain24%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain24%
Fog, smog or smoke00%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other36%
Unknown or not reported00%
InvolvingCrashesShare
A pedestrian611%
A bicyclist or other cyclist00%
A speeding-related vehicle1324%
A driver police reported as drinking1630%
Most-named roadsCrashes
I-9014
US-2127
US- 2122
I- 902
SR-OLD US871

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.