Overview

Although motor-vehicle-related deaths occur more often in collisions between motor vehicles than any other type of incident, crashes of this type represented less than half of the total in 2021 (43%). Collisions between a motor vehicle and a fixed object were the next most common type, with over 26% of deaths, followed by pedestrian incidents and non-collisions (rollovers, etc.).

While collisions between motor vehicles accounted for less than half of motor-vehicle fatalities, this crash type represented 63% of injuries, 71% of injury crashes, and 71% of all incidents.

Conversely, single-vehicle crashes involving collisions with fixed objects, pedestrians, and non-collisions accounted for a greater proportion of fatalities and fatal crashes compared to less serious crashes. These three crash types made up 54% of fatalities and 56% of fatal crashes, but only 35% or less of injuries, injury crashes, or all crashes.

When looking at collisions between motor vehicles, angle collisions cause the greatest number of deaths (about 9,000 in 2021). The interactive chart also shows the estimated number of deaths, injuries, fatal crashes, injury crashes, and all crashes for various types of motor-vehicle crashes.

Source: National Safety Council (NSC) estimates based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and Crash Report Sampling System, as well as National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) mortality estimates.