CrashRate

Fatal crash rate · Montana

Fatal crash rate in Broadwater County, Montana

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

Broadwater County, Montana2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

36.2fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 3 fatal crashes in Broadwater County, Montana, where 8,289 people lived. That is 36.2 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 4 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 38.8.

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

Small population. Broadwater County has 8,289 residents, so one crash moves the rate by 12.1 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
3 fatal crashes ÷ 8,289 residents × 100,000 = 36.2
Five-year
9 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 23,210 resident-years × 100,000 = 38.8
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
2020346,86043.7
2021007,3290.0
2022007,7940.0
2023338,06137.2
2024348,28936.2

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

Road typeCrashesShare
Interstate111%
Other freeway or expressway00%
Other principal arterial444%
Minor arterial111%
Major collector00%
Minor collector111%
Local road222%
Unknown or not reported00%
Rural9100%
Urban00%
Time of dayCrashesShare
Midnight to 5:59 am222%
6 am to 11:59 am222%
Noon to 5:59 pm333%
6 pm to 11:59 pm222%
Hour unknown00%
LightCrashesShare
Daylight556%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)444%
Dark, lighted00%
Dawn or dusk00%
Unknown or not reported00%
WeatherCrashesShare
Clear444%
Cloudy333%
Rain00%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain222%
Fog, smog or smoke00%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other00%
Unknown or not reported00%
InvolvingCrashesShare
A pedestrian111%
A bicyclist or other cyclist00%
A speeding-related vehicle444%
A driver police reported as drinking444%
Most-named roadsCrashes
US-122
US-2872
CR- MAGPIE GULCH ROAD1
CLOPTON LN1
US-12/2871

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.