Report: Southern, rural states lead national highway deaths

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(The Center Square) – Mississippi, Wyoming and Arkansas lead the nation in car crash fatalities, according to a new report

The Welcome Law Firm, a personal injury and immigration legal clinic, analyzed fatal crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration between 2020 and 2024 in order to determine which states recorded the highest number of fatal crashes across the country. 

The report found Mississippi recorded the highest rate of fatal crashes with 22.28 per every 100,000 residents. Wyoming followed with 19.12 per 100,000, and Arkansas ranked third with 19 per 100,000 from 2020 to 2024. 

Authors of the report noted that population sizes in various states may skew the results. For example, South Carolina ranked fifth in highway fatalities but recorded 1,000 more incidents than Mississippi. 

"A state with 40 million residents and 4,000 yearly fatal crashes represents a very different level of danger than a state with far fewer residents and a similar number of crashes," the report reads. 

Mississippi reported 3,371 fatal crashes between 2020 and 2022, whereas South Carolina, ranked fifth, reported 5,019. 

The law firm said Southern and rural states tend to make up the largest share of areas where fatal crashes are more common. Rural road networks, limited emergency response, remote locations and higher travel speeds accounted for the greater share of fatalities, according to the report. 

Among the top 10 states, Tennessee recorded the highest number of fatal crashes with 5,874. The average rate was 16.6 per 100,000 residents. 

"Reducing road deaths will demand targeted infrastructure improvements, enhanced safety measures, and sustained policy intervention," the report reads. 

Louisiana ranked eighth in car crash fatalities with 3,980 across a period of five years. 

Authors of the report pointed out that many crashes involve more than one fatality. Fatalities ranged between an average 1.08 and 1.09 per incident from 2020 to 2024.

Alcohol-impaired driving accounted for 63,069 fatalities between 2020 and 2024, the deadliest factor of all those recorded. Speeding led to 58,284 fatalities between 2020 and 2024 while distracted driving accounted for 16,482 fatalities. 

"Recording distraction usually relies on enforcement officer observation as opposed to phone records or vehicle data," the report reads. 

The law firm said increased penalities for driving under the influence of alcohol seem to have produced little effect on the outcome of road fatalities. The report found New Mexico ranked highest in the nation for distracted driving fatalities. 

Wyoming ranked highest for speeding fatalities and third for drunk driving and Louisiana was the only state in the top 10 across the three categories of speeding, drunk driving and distracted driving. 

"As such, rural networks may need a significantly higher level of attention regarding road safety," the report reads. "The consequences of indulging poor and dangerous driver behavior may need to be much more serious to preempt a sadly steady fatality rate on our national roads."