Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year

Fatalities that result from motor vehicle crashes are the second largest cause of accidental deaths in the United States.

[3] Motor vehicle fatalities in the United States are reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

For more details, see Transportation safety in the United States.

From the beginning of recorded statistics until the 1970s, total traffic deaths in the United States generally trended upwards, except during the Great Depression and World War II.

[5] For 2016, the NHTSA reported 37,461 people killed in 34,436 fatal motor vehicle crashes, an average of 102 per day.