Ford County, Illinois: fatal crash statistics

Counties of Illinois by year (CSV)Cite this page

FARS records 5 deaths in 4 fatal crashes in Ford County in 2024.

FARS records 36 deaths in 32 fatal crashes in the county from 2015 to 2024.

From 2015 to 2024 the rate is 27.0 deaths for each 100,000 residents in a year.

The rate of Illinois in the same years is 9.0.

By deaths from 2015 to 2024, Ford County was number 62 of 102 counties of Illinois.

Deaths in Ford County rose by 33.3% between the ten years 2005 to 2014 (27) and the ten years 2015 to 2024 (36).

In the counties of Illinois the deaths rose by 8.4% between the same years.

From 2015 to 2024, 100.0% of the fatal crashes in Ford County with a known setting were rural, against 33.6% in Illinois.

To qualify as a FARS case, the crash had to involve a motor vehicle traveling on a trafficway customarily open to the public and must have resulted in the death of a motorist or a non-motorist within 30 days of the crash.
The set of first files, known as the Annual Report File (ARF), is released following the crash year. The ARF is replaced about a year later with a final file, which contains additional cases or updates to cases that had become available after the ARF was released.
NHTSA's words. Source: NHTSA, Fatality Analysis Reporting System Analytical User's Manual, 1975-2024 (DOT HS 813 794, April 2026), copied on 2 Oct 2026.

This page rests on the FARS 2024 annual file. NHTSA released it on 1 Apr 2026. NHTSA can revise the counts in the final file. Release dates

Figure 1.Deaths in Ford County by year, 2015 to 2024

1 or 2

Table 1 has the numbers. Go to the table

Since the last update: no figure of this county has a change on record.

Deaths and fatal crashes by year

Table 1.Ford County: deaths and fatal crashes by year, 2015 to 2024
Year	Deaths	Fatal crashes	Crashes with a driver recorded as drinking
2024	5	4	1 or 2
2023	4	4	1 or 2
2022	1 or 2	1 or 2	0
2021	4	4	1 or 2
2020	5	4	0
2019	4	3	0
2018	6	5	1 or 2
2017	1 or 2	1 or 2	1 or 2
2016	5	5	1 or 2
2015	1 or 2	1 or 2	1 or 2
2015 to 2024	36	32	10

Each year from 1975

Figure 2.Deaths in Ford County by year, 1975 to 2024

Tallest column: 11 (1978)2024: 5

The columns with a stronger shade are the years 2015 to 2024.

Table 2.Ford County: deaths and fatal crashes by year, 1975 to 2024
Year	Deaths	Fatal crashes
2024	5	4
2023	4	4
2022	1 or 2	1 or 2
2021	4	4
2020	5	4
2019	4	3
2018	6	5
2017	1 or 2	1 or 2
2016	5	5
2015	1 or 2	1 or 2
2014	4	3
2013	1 or 2	1 or 2
2012	4	3
2011	1 or 2	1 or 2
2010	1 or 2	1 or 2
2009	1 or 2	1 or 2
2008	4	4
2007	1 or 2	1 or 2
2006	5	4
2005	3	3
2004	1 or 2	1 or 2
2003	6	6
2002	5	4
2001	10	6
2000	3	3
1999	1 or 2	1 or 2
1998	5	5
1997	3	3
1996	3	3
1995	8	6
1994	4	4
1993	1 or 2	1 or 2
1992	3	3
1991	1 or 2	1 or 2
1990	4	3
1989	11	7
1988	1 or 2	1 or 2
1987	5	4
1986	8	7
1985	1 or 2	1 or 2
1984	4	4
1983	3	3
1982	7	4
1981	5	4
1980	4	4
1979	5	4
1978	11	9
1977	9	8
1976	5	5
1975	4	4

Note: a count of 1 or 2 is written "1 or 2". A death is in FARS when it occurs in 30 days or less after the crash.

Rate for each 100,000 residents

Table 3.Ford County beside Illinois and the United States: deaths for each 100,000 residents
Period	Ford County	Illinois	United States
2024	37.5	9.3	11.5
2015 to 2024, in a year	27.0	9.0	11.8

Note: the rate divides the deaths in the county by its residents. Persons who do not live in the county are in the deaths, not in the residents.

Population: Census Bureau estimates, vintage 2025. Ford County had 13,326 residents in 2024.

Factors that NHTSA records

Table 4.Ford County: counts by recorded factor, 2015 to 2024
Factor	Count	Counted among	Share	Share in Illinois
A driver recorded as drinkingof 32 fatal crashes	10	32 fatal crashes	31.3%	27.2%
A speeding-related driverof 32 fatal crashes	8	32 fatal crashes	25.0%	36.5%
No restraint usedof 31 occupant deaths with restraint use known	19	31 occupant deathswith restraint use known	61.3%	46.8%
Pedestriansof 36 deaths	0	36 deaths	0.0%	15.5%
Bicyclistsof 36 deaths	0	36 deaths	0.0%	2.5%
Motorcyclistsof 36 deaths	3	36 deaths	8.3%	13.3%
On a rural roadof 32 fatal crashes with the condition reported	32	32 fatal crasheswith the condition reported	100.0%	33.6%
In the darkof 32 fatal crashes with the condition reported	9	32 fatal crasheswith the condition reported	28.1%	48.7%

Note: FARS records a driver as drinking when police reported alcohol involvement or a test of the driver was positive for alcohol. It is not NHTSA's alcohol-impaired measure, which uses a blood alcohol concentration of .08 g/dL or higher. One crash can be in two or more rows. NHTSA's definitions

Note that alcohol data is often missing. For that reason, this data element may under-count the actual number of drinking drivers.

NHTSA's words. Source: NHTSA, Fatality Analysis Reporting System Analytical User's Manual, 1975-2024 (DOT HS 813 794, April 2026), copied on 2 Oct 2026.

Weekday, time and road class

Table 5.Ford County: fatal crashes by weekday and time of day, 2015 to 2024
Weekday	Midnight to 6 a.m.	6 a.m. to noon	Noon to 6 p.m.	6 p.m. to midnight	All
Sunday	1 or 2	1 or 2	1 or 2	1 or 2	5
Monday	1 or 2	1 or 2	0	0	1 or 2
Tuesday	1 or 2	1 or 2	1 or 2	0	4
Wednesday	0	5	0	1 or 2	6
Thursday	0	3	1 or 2	0	5
Friday	1 or 2	0	1 or 2	1 or 2	4
Saturday	1 or 2	1 or 2	0	1 or 2	6
All days	6	13	8	5	32

Note: a cell with a stronger shade has a larger count. The table has the fatal crashes with a known hour and weekday.

Table 6.Ford County: fatal crashes by road function class, 2015 to 2024
Road function class	Fatal crashes	Share	Share in Illinois
Interstate	5	15.6%	14.2%
Other freeways and expressways	0	0.0%	0.7%
Other principal arterial	5	15.6%	29.1%
Minor arterial	6	18.8%	24.5%
Major collector	11	34.4%	17.0%
Minor collector	0	0.0%	2.0%
Local	5	15.6%	12.5%
Not reported	0	n/a	n/a

Note: the classes are those of the Federal Highway Administration. The shares are of the crashes with a reported class. Road function classes

Light condition and weather

Table 7.Ford County: fatal crashes by light condition, 2015 to 2024
Light condition	Fatal crashes
Daylight	23
Dark, not lighted	9
Dark, lighted	0
Dawn	0
Dusk	0
Dark, lighting unknown	0
Other or unknown	0

Table 8.Ford County: fatal crashes by weather, 2015 to 2024
Weather	Fatal crashes
Clear	28
Cloudy	1 or 2
Rain	1 or 2
Snow, sleet or freezing rain	0
Fog, smog or smoke	0
Crosswinds or blowing sand/snow	0
Other or not reported	1 or 2

Routes in the county

Table 9.Signed routes in Ford County that have a page: fatal crashes, 2015 to 2024
Route	Type	In Ford	In all of Illinois
Interstate 57	Interstate	5	223
State Route 9	State highway	5	20
State Route 47	State highway	1 or 2	50
State Route 116	State highway	1 or 2	26
US Route 24	US highway	3	57
US Route 45	US highway	1 or 2	130

Note: the table has each route with a page that has a fatal crash in the county, in name order. Local streets and county roads have no page. Their crashes are in the county totals. All routes in Illinois

Adjacent counties

These lists are for navigation. They are in name order.

Figure 3.Ford County on the county map of Illinois

Deaths for each 100,000 residents in a year, 2015 to 2024

Fewer than 1016 counties
10 to 14.926 counties
15 to 19.927 counties
20 to 29.928 counties
30 or more5 counties
Ford County: 27.0

The limits of the classes are the same for every state. A county with few residents can show a high rate from few deaths. A class is not a judgement of a county. The full map and the table of counties of Illinois

Table 10.Counties that share a boundary line with Ford County
County	State	Deaths, 2024	Deaths, 2015 to 2024	For each 100,000 residents in a year
Champaign County	Illinois	10	163	7.8
Iroquois County	Illinois	6	95	35.0
Kankakee County	Illinois	23	166	15.3
Livingston County	Illinois	8	81	22.7
McLean County	Illinois	11	144	8.4
Vermilion County	Illinois	8	115	15.3

Source of the list: Census Bureau county adjacency file, 2026 edition.

Counties of similar population

These counties of Illinois have a population nearest to that of Ford County. The list is for navigation and is in name order. The number is the deaths from 2015 to 2024.

Official channels

NHTSA Fatality and Injury Reporting System Tool (FIRST)NHTSA's query tool for FARS counts.
NHTSA FARS EncyclopediaNHTSA's tables of FARS data.
Illinois Department of TransportationThe highway safety office of Illinois.

These links go to the sites of the agencies. They were checked on 2 Oct 2026.

Cite this page

Fatal Roads. Ford County, Illinois: fatal crash statistics. https://fatalroads.com/county/il/ford/. Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System, FARS 2024 annual file. Data to 31 Dec 2024.

The address of this page does not change.

Source of the figures

Counts: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System, national files of 1975 to 2024. The factors use the vehicle and person files from 2015. Residents: Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, vintage 2025. Map: Census Bureau cartographic boundary file, 2021 edition. Data to 31 Dec 2024. The figures are totals. No page of this site is about one crash or one person.

How the figures are made. Data sources and licences. Corrections.

Questions

How many deaths did FARS record in Ford in the ten years before 2015?

FARS records 27 deaths in Ford County from 2005 to 2014. It records 36 deaths from 2015 to 2024.

What was the rate of Ford in 2024?

The rate of Ford County in 2024 was 37.5 deaths for each 100,000 residents. The rate of Illinois was 9.3. The rate of the United States was 11.5.

How many fatal crashes in Ford had a driver recorded as drinking?

FARS records a driver as drinking in 10 of 32 fatal crashes from 2015 to 2024. This count is not NHTSA's alcohol-impaired measure. NHTSA says that alcohol data is often missing, so the count may be too low.

How many fatal crashes did FARS record on signed routes in Ford?

6 signed routes in the county have a page. FARS records 17 fatal crashes on them in the county from 2015 to 2024. The table of routes on this page gives the count for each route.