CrashRate

Fatal crash rate · Montana

Fatal crash rate in Powell County, Montana

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

Powell County, Montana2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

0.0fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

NHTSA recorded no fatal crashes in Powell County, Montana in 2024, where 7,121 people lived. Over 2020 to 2023 the average was 56.9.

The road is a scale of fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024, 0 to 40. The yellow post is Powell County; the white posts are Montana and the United States. The shaded band is how far one crash moves Powell County’s post.

Small population. Powell County has 7,121 residents, so one crash moves the rate by 14.0 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
0 fatal crashes ÷ 7,121 residents × 100,000 = 0.0
Five-year
16 crashes (2020 to 2023) ÷ 28,128 resident-years × 100,000 = 56.9
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
2020556,94172.0
2021457,02157.0
2022337,05442.5
2023447,11256.2
2024007,1210.0

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

Road typeCrashesShare
Interstate531%
Other freeway or expressway00%
Other principal arterial531%
Minor arterial00%
Major collector16%
Minor collector16%
Local road425%
Unknown or not reported00%
Rural1594%
Urban16%
Time of dayCrashesShare
Midnight to 5:59 am16%
6 am to 11:59 am531%
Noon to 5:59 pm638%
6 pm to 11:59 pm319%
Hour unknown16%
LightCrashesShare
Daylight1063%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)16%
Dark, lighted16%
Dawn or dusk319%
Unknown or not reported16%
WeatherCrashesShare
Clear744%
Cloudy319%
Rain16%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain213%
Fog, smog or smoke213%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other00%
Unknown or not reported16%
InvolvingCrashesShare
A pedestrian16%
A bicyclist or other cyclist00%
A speeding-related vehicle744%
A driver police reported as drinking744%
Most-named roadsCrashes
I-904
SR-2003
CR- LITTLE BLACKFOOT RIVER RD1
CR- DUNHAM CREEK ROAD1
US-121

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.