Data sources and licences
Last checked against the NHTSA pages:
Each source is a work of the United States government and is in the public domain. Fatal Roads is not a part of these agencies, and they do not endorse it. The site reads files. It does not use an application programming interface (API).
NHTSA, Fatality Analysis Reporting System
NHTSA publishes FARS as one file of tables for each crash year. The site reads the accident table of 1975 to 2024 and the vehicle and person tables of 2015 to 2024. This edition rests on the FARS 2024 annual file. The page FARS release dates has the date of each file.
- Files: one national CSV file (a zip) for each year, at
static.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/downloads/FARS/{year}/National/FARS{year}NationalCSV.zip. - Release notes: one text file for each year, in the folder of the year.
- Programme page: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).
- Manual: Fatality Analysis Reporting System Analytical User's Manual, 1975-2024.
The site uses these fields. It publishes no name, no case number and no date with a place.
- Place: state, county, route signing, trafficway, milepoint, functional system, rural or urban.
- Time: month, hour, weekday.
- Conditions: light, weather.
- Persons and vehicles: number of fatalities, driver drinking, speeding related, person type, body type, injury severity, restraint use.
The site reads the years before 2015 once and keeps a fixed copy. If NHTSA revises such a year, the site does not show it.
Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program
County and state residents for each year from 2000. Three files give the years: the intercensal estimates of 2000 to 2010, the estimates of vintage 2020, and the estimates of vintage 2025. They are the base of each rate for 100,000 residents.
Census Bureau, Geography Program
- Cartographic boundary file of the counties, 2021 edition: the county maps.
- County adjacency file, 2026 edition: the lists of adjacent counties.
- Gazetteer of places, 2026 edition, with the relation of places to counties of 2020: the cities and towns in the search.
Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics, table VM-2
Vehicle-miles of each state for each year from 2015. They are the base of each rate for 100 million vehicle-miles. The site reads one table for each year, at a rate of one request each second.
- Table VM-2 of 2015
- Table VM-2 of 2016
- Table VM-2 of 2017
- Table VM-2 of 2018
- Table VM-2 of 2019
- Table VM-2 of 2020
- Table VM-2 of 2021
- Table VM-2 of 2022
- Table VM-2 of 2023
- Table VM-2 of 2024
The sources and their licences
- NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS): US government work, public domain.
- US Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program: US government work, public domain.
- US Census Bureau, Geography Program (gazetteer, county adjacency and cartographic boundary files): US government work, public domain.
- Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics (table VM-2): US government work, public domain.
Dates
Data to . The newest FARS year is 2024. The links to official channels on the pages were checked on .
Files of this site
Each state and each year (CSV). Each state page has a CSV file of its counties by year. You can quote a table or a figure with a link to its page. The page of a table has the source and the date of the data.