Fatal crash rate in Polk County, Tennessee
Fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA in Polk County, Tennessee, 2020 to 2024, divided by the people who live there. Fatal crashes only: not injuries, not all crashes, not traffic in general.
Polk County, Tennessee2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA
32.6fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024
In 2024, NHTSA recorded 6 fatal crashes in Polk County, Tennessee, where 18,408 people lived. That is 32.6 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 7 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 27.9.
The road is a scale of fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024, 0 to 40. The yellow post is Polk County; the white posts are Tennessee and the United States. The shaded band is how far one crash moves Polk County’s post.
- Per 100,000
- 6 fatal crashes ÷ 18,408 residents × 100,000 = 32.6
- Five-year
- 25 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 89,510 resident-years × 100,000 = 27.9
- Same year
- Tennessee: 1,093 ÷ 7,251,291 = 15.1 · United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7
Every year, 2020 to 2024
| Year | Fatal crashes | Deaths | Population | Per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 5 | 5 | 17,558 | 28.5 |
| 2021 | 7 | 8 | 17,704 | 39.5 |
| 2022 | 5 | 5 | 17,776 | 28.1 |
| 2023 | 2 | 2 | 18,064 | 11.1 |
| 2024 | 6 | 7 | 18,408 | 32.6 |
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 25 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Polk County, Tennessee over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.
| Road type | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Interstate | 0 | 0% |
| Other freeway or expressway | 0 | 0% |
| Other principal arterial | 15 | 60% |
| Minor arterial | 3 | 12% |
| Major collector | 2 | 8% |
| Minor collector | 0 | 0% |
| Local road | 5 | 20% |
| Unknown or not reported | 0 | 0% |
| Rural | 25 | 100% |
| Urban | 0 | 0% |
| Time of day | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight to 5:59 am | 1 | 4% |
| 6 am to 11:59 am | 3 | 12% |
| Noon to 5:59 pm | 6 | 24% |
| 6 pm to 11:59 pm | 11 | 44% |
| Hour unknown | 4 | 16% |
| Light | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Daylight | 13 | 52% |
| Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown) | 9 | 36% |
| Dark, lighted | 1 | 4% |
| Dawn or dusk | 2 | 8% |
| Unknown or not reported | 0 | 0% |
| Weather | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Clear | 19 | 76% |
| Cloudy | 3 | 12% |
| Rain | 2 | 8% |
| Snow, sleet or freezing rain | 0 | 0% |
| Fog, smog or smoke | 0 | 0% |
| Severe wind, blowing sand or other | 0 | 0% |
| Unknown or not reported | 1 | 4% |
| Involving | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A pedestrian | 0 | 0% |
| A bicyclist or other cyclist | 0 | 0% |
| A speeding-related vehicle | 4 | 16% |
| A driver police reported as drinking | 5 | 20% |
| Most-named roads | Crashes |
|---|---|
| US-64/74 SR-40 | 9 |
| US-411 SR-33 | 5 |
| SR-68 | 3 |
| CR-BALL PLAY RD | 2 |
| SR-163 BOWATER RD | 2 |
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 theFATALSfield. Counties are the FARSSTATEandCOUNTYcodes 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.