CrashRate

Fatal crash rate · Nebraska

Fatal crash rate in Wayne County, Nebraska

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

Wayne County, Nebraska2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

20.2fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 2 fatal crashes in Wayne County, Nebraska, where 9,900 people lived. That is 20.2 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 3 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 20.3.

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

Small population. Wayne County has 9,900 residents, so one crash moves the rate by 10.1 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
2 fatal crashes ÷ 9,900 residents × 100,000 = 20.2
Five-year
10 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 49,355 resident-years × 100,000 = 20.3
Same year
Nebraska: 223 ÷ 2,005,591 = 11.1 · United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

YearFatal crashesDeathsPopulationPer 100,000
2020229,70520.6
2021119,87710.1
2022449,94040.2
2023119,93310.1
2024239,90020.2

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 10 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Wayne County, Nebraska over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road typeCrashesShare
Interstate00%
Other freeway or expressway00%
Other principal arterial00%
Minor arterial880%
Major collector110%
Minor collector110%
Local road00%
Unknown or not reported00%
Rural880%
Urban220%
Time of dayCrashesShare
Midnight to 5:59 am110%
6 am to 11:59 am220%
Noon to 5:59 pm330%
6 pm to 11:59 pm220%
Hour unknown220%
LightCrashesShare
Daylight550%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)330%
Dark, lighted00%
Dawn or dusk220%
Unknown or not reported00%
WeatherCrashesShare
Clear660%
Cloudy220%
Rain00%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain110%
Fog, smog or smoke110%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other00%
Unknown or not reported00%
InvolvingCrashesShare
A pedestrian00%
A bicyclist or other cyclist00%
A speeding-related vehicle110%
A driver police reported as drinking110%
Most-named roadsCrashes
SR-356
CR-859TH RD1
SR-981
SR-35 E 7TH ST1
CENTENNIAL RD1

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.