Fatal crash rate · State
Fatal crash rate in Alabama
Fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA in Alabama, 2020 to 2024, divided by the people who live there and the miles driven there. Fatal crashes only: not injuries, not all crashes, not traffic in general.
Alabama2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA
17.3fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024
In 2024, NHTSA recorded 895 fatal crashes in Alabama, where 5,163,055 people lived. That is 17.3 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 962 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 17.4. Per mile driven, Alabama had 1.2 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle-miles in 2024.
The road is a scale of fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024, 0 to 40. The yellow post is Alabama; the white posts are the United States.
- Per 100,000
- 895 fatal crashes ÷ 5,163,055 residents × 100,000 = 17.3
- Five-year
- 4,438 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 25,440,793 resident-years × 100,000 = 17.4
- Per 100M miles
- 895 fatal crashes ÷ 72,904 million vehicle-miles (2024) × 100 = 1.2
- Same year
- United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7
Every year, 2020 to 2024
| Year | Fatal crashes | Deaths | Population | Per 100,000 | Vehicle-miles (millions) | Per 100M miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 852 | 934 | 5,032,962 | 16.9 | 67,921 | 1.3 |
| 2021 | 885 | 983 | 5,050,058 | 17.5 | 71,892 | 1.2 |
| 2022 | 913 | 988 | 5,076,868 | 18.0 | 71,631 | 1.3 |
| 2023 | 893 | 974 | 5,117,850 | 17.4 | 72,289 | 1.2 |
| 2024 | 895 | 962 | 5,163,055 | 17.3 | 72,904 | 1.2 |
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 4,438 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Alabama over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.
| Road type | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Interstate | 601 | 14% |
| Other freeway or expressway | 23 | 1% |
| Other principal arterial | 1,221 | 28% |
| Minor arterial | 1,036 | 23% |
| Major collector | 979 | 22% |
| Minor collector | 102 | 2% |
| Local road | 471 | 11% |
| Unknown or not reported | 5 | 0% |
| Rural | 2,479 | 56% |
| Urban | 1,954 | 44% |
| Time of day | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight to 5:59 am | 898 | 20% |
| 6 am to 11:59 am | 806 | 18% |
| Noon to 5:59 pm | 1,336 | 30% |
| 6 pm to 11:59 pm | 1,388 | 31% |
| Hour unknown | 10 | 0% |
| Light | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Daylight | 2,075 | 47% |
| Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown) | 1,495 | 34% |
| Dark, lighted | 628 | 14% |
| Dawn or dusk | 226 | 5% |
| Unknown or not reported | 14 | 0% |
| Weather | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Clear | 3,127 | 70% |
| Cloudy | 792 | 18% |
| Rain | 435 | 10% |
| Snow, sleet or freezing rain | 2 | 0% |
| Fog, smog or smoke | 59 | 1% |
| Severe wind, blowing sand or other | 2 | 0% |
| Unknown or not reported | 21 | 0% |
| Involving | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A pedestrian | 591 | 13% |
| A bicyclist or other cyclist | 51 | 1% |
| A speeding-related vehicle | 1,185 | 27% |
| A driver police reported as drinking | 573 | 13% |
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.
Counties in Alabama
Alphabetical, with each county’s 2024 fatal crashes and rate per 100,000. The site does not rank them: a small county’s rate swings on one crash.
- Autauga County 8 · 13.0
- Baldwin County 25 · 9.6
- Barbour County 6 · 24.5
- Bibb County 4 · 18.0
- Blount County 16 · 26.6
- Bullock County 4 · 40.6
- Butler County 8 · 43.8
- Calhoun County 23 · 19.8
- Chambers County 4 · 11.7
- Cherokee County 11 · 42.2
- Chilton County 15 · 31.7
- Choctaw County 5 · 41.4
- Clarke County 7 · 31.6
- Clay County 4 · 28.1
- Cleburne County 9 · 56.8
- Coffee County 5 · 8.9
- Colbert County 12 · 20.3
- Conecuh County 9 · 81.5
- Coosa County 5 · 48.6
- Covington County 7 · 18.4
- Crenshaw County 3 · 22.8
- Cullman County 21 · 22.6
- Dale County 6 · 12.0
- Dallas County 13 · 36.5
- DeKalb County 20 · 27.2
- Elmore County 8 · 8.8
- Escambia County 9 · 24.5
- Etowah County 19 · 18.4
- Fayette County 10 · 62.8
- Franklin County 7 · 21.7
- Geneva County 6 · 22.0
- Greene County 2 · 28.0
- Hale County 4 · 26.4
- Henry County 2 · 11.0
- Houston County 10 · 9.1
- Jackson County 13 · 24.1
- Jefferson County 95 · 14.3
- Lamar County 4 · 29.5
- Lauderdale County 18 · 18.5
- Lawrence County 11 · 32.7
- Lee County 25 · 13.3
- Limestone County 21 · 17.6
- Lowndes County 5 · 52.5
- Macon County 8 · 43.8
- Madison County 43 · 10.2
- Marengo County 5 · 27.1
- Marion County 12 · 40.9
- Marshall County 12 · 11.7
- Mobile County 66 · 16.0
- Monroe County 4 · 21.0
- Montgomery County 41 · 18.2
- Morgan County 23 · 18.2
- Perry County 5 · 65.6
- Pickens County 6 · 32.5
- Pike County 7 · 21.1
- Randolph County 5 · 21.7
- Russell County 8 · 13.6
- Shelby County 9 · 3.8
- St. Clair County 16 · 16.5
- Sumter County 6 · 51.6
- Talladega County 25 · 30.7
- Tallapoosa County 6 · 14.7
- Tuscaloosa County 35 · 14.5
- Walker County 21 · 32.2
- Washington County 4 · 26.7
- Wilcox County 3 · 30.3
- Winston County 6 · 25.1
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.
- Vehicle-miles are FHWA Highway Statistics table VM-2, total annual travel by state. Rate per 100 million vehicle-miles = crashes ÷ miles × 100,000,000, the form the federal safety rule uses (23 CFR 490.207). FHWA publishes no county vehicle-miles, so county pages have no per-mile rate.
- 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.