MEC&F Expert Engineers : Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Highlights Calendar Year 2013

Friday, February 6, 2015

Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Highlights Calendar Year 2013





 Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Highlights Calendar Year 2013


 Information contained in this report represents reportable data collected from Texas Peace Officer's Crash Reports (CR-3) received and processed by the Department as of May 7, 2014.


·         The Fatality Rate on Texas roadways for 2013 was 1.40 deaths per hundred million vehicle miles traveled. This is a 2.78% decrease from 2012.
·         The Fatality Rate was 1.3 deaths per 10,000 residents;  by comparison, the death rate of most other states is less than 1.0 death per 10,000 residents (this is national death rate per 10,000 residents).  Hence, Texas death rate is roughly 30% greater than the average national death rate.

·         Texas experienced a decrease in the number of motor vehicle traffic fatalities. The 2013 death toll of 3,377 was a decrease of 1.05% from the 3,413 deaths recorded in 2012.

·         There were 65,539 serious injury crashes in Texas in 2013 with 89,270 people sustaining a serious injury.

·         The annual vehicle miles traveled in Texas during 2013 reached 240.447 billion, an increase of 1.1% over the 237.821 billion traveled in 2012.

·         Fatalities in traffic crashes in rural areas of the state accounted for 55.76% of the state’s traffic fatalities. There were 1,883 deaths in rural traffic crashes.

·         Single vehicle, run-off the road crashes resulted in 1,333 deaths in 2013. This was 39.47 % of all motor vehicle traffic deaths in 2013.

·         In 2013 there were 767 people killed in crashes occurring in intersections or related to an intersection.

·         There were 523 people killed in head-on crashes in 2013.

·         There were no deathless days on Texas roadways in 2013.

·         There was one crash that resulted in 6 or more fatalities in 2013.

·         Saturday, March 23nd was the deadliest day in 2013 with twenty-seven (27) persons killed in traffic crashes. June was the deadliest month with 336 persons killed.

·         Based on reportable crashes in 2013:

·         1 person was killed every 2 hours 36 minutes
·         1 person was injured every 2 minutes 16 seconds
·         1 reportable crash occurred every 71 seconds

·         Of all persons killed in vehicles where restraint usage was applicable and usage was known in 2013, 44.7% were reported as not restrained when the fatal crash occurred.

·         232,041 persons were injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2013.

·         There were 495 motorcyclists (operators and passengers) killed in 2013. Fifty-three percent (53%) of motorcyclists killed were not wearing helmets at the time of the crash.

·         Pedestrian fatalities totaled 485 in 2013. This is a 0.4% decrease from 2012.

·         Pedalcyclist fatalities totaled 48 in 2013. This is a 14.3% decrease from 2012.

·         In 2013, there were 1,089 people killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes where a driver was under the influence of alcohol. This is 32.2% of the total number of people killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes.

·         During 2013, more DUI - Alcohol crashes were reported in the hour between 2:00 am and 2:59 am than any other hour of the day. Also, more of these crashes occurred on Saturday than any other day of the week.

·         In 2013, there were 460 people killed in crashes involving distracted driving. This is a 2.34% decrease from 2012.