Fatal crash rate in Hays County, Texas

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

Hays County, Texas2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

8.8fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 26 fatal crashes in Hays County, Texas, where 294,339 people lived. That is 8.8 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 28 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 11.1.

010203040

Texas 12.1

US 10.7

Hays County 8.8

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

Per 100,000: 26 fatal crashes ÷ 294,339 residents × 100,000 = 8.8
Five-year: 150 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 1,345,860 resident-years × 100,000 = 11.1
Same year: Texas: 3,774 ÷ 31,318,578 = 12.1 · United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

US 10.7

11.9

9.8

14.1

11.4

8.8

20202021202220232024

Bars: this place, fatal crashes per 100,000 residents. Dashed line: the United States in the latest year. Source: NHTSA FARS and Census population estimates, each year.

Year	Fatal crashes	Deaths	Population	Per 100,000
2020	29	30	243,984	11.9
2021	25	29	256,100	9.8
2022	38	39	269,554	14.1
2023	32	36	281,883	11.4
2024	26	28	294,339	8.8

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 150 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Hays County, Texas over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road type	Crashes	Share
Interstate	27	18%
Other freeway or expressway	0	0%
Other principal arterial	38	25%
Minor arterial	17	11%
Major collector	48	32%
Minor collector	2	1%
Local road	17	11%
Unknown or not reported	1	1%
Rural	52	35%
Urban	97	65%

Time of day	Crashes	Share
Midnight to 5:59 am	35	23%
6 am to 11:59 am	25	17%
Noon to 5:59 pm	35	23%
6 pm to 11:59 pm	55	37%
Hour unknown	0	0%

Light	Crashes	Share
Daylight	56	37%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)	55	37%
Dark, lighted	34	23%
Dawn or dusk	4	3%
Unknown or not reported	1	1%

Weather	Crashes	Share
Clear	121	81%
Cloudy	22	15%
Rain	4	3%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain	0	0%
Fog, smog or smoke	2	1%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other	0	0%
Unknown or not reported	1	1%

Involving	Crashes	Share
A pedestrian	24	16%
A bicyclist or other cyclist	3	2%
A speeding-related vehicle	71	47%
A driver police reported as drinking	26	17%

Most-named roads	Crashes
I-35	18
SR-123	12
US-290	10
RM 12	7
I-35/PURPLE HEART TRL	7

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.