Fatal RoadsSearch

Edition: FARS 2024, annual fileNHTSA released it on Release dates

Kansas fatal crashes in 1978

FARS records 572 deaths in 498 fatal crashes in Kansas in 1978.

In 1977 it records 552 deaths in 483 fatal crashes.

This site gives no rate for the years before 2000.

Deaths in Kansas rose by 3.6% from 1977 to 1978. In the United States they rose by 5.1%.

In 1978, a driver was recorded as drinking in 30.7% of fatal crashes in Kansas and 35.5% in the United States.

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 .

This site reads the years before 2015 from one fixed copy. It does not track later revisions of these years. Release dates

1978 beside 1977

Table 1.Kansas in 1978, in 1977 and the United States in 1978
FigureKansas, 1978Kansas, 1977United States, 1978
Deaths57255250,331
Fatal crashes49848344,433
Deaths for each 100,000 residentsn/an/an/a
Fatal crashes with a driver recorded as drinking153n/a15,780

Note: this site has no rate for the years before 2000.

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. NHTSA's definitions

NHTSA says that its count of drinking drivers is unreliable for 1977, 1981 and 1999 to 2007, because it was derived in a wrong way. This site gives no count for these years.

For the years before 2015 the count is from the FARS element DRUNK_DR. It counts a blood alcohol concentration of .01 g/dL or more. From 2015 the count is from DR_DRINK and counts .001 g/dL or more.

Counties in 1978

Table 2.Kansas: counties with a fatal crash in 1978, in name order
CountyDeathsFatal crashes
Allen County1 or 21 or 2
Anderson County43
Atchison County1 or 21 or 2
Barber County1 or 21 or 2
Barton County1010
Bourbon County1310
Brown County1 or 21 or 2
Butler County2217
Chase County1 or 21 or 2
Chautauqua County1 or 21 or 2
Cherokee County129
Clark County1 or 21 or 2
Clay County1 or 21 or 2
Cloud County54
Coffey County1 or 21 or 2
Comanche County1 or 21 or 2
Cowley County87
Crawford County76
Decatur County43
Dickinson County44
Douglas County1210
Edwards County1 or 21 or 2
Elk County1 or 21 or 2
Ellis County66
Ellsworth County1 or 21 or 2
Finney County128
Ford County54
Franklin County137
Geary County55
Gove County1 or 21 or 2
Grant County43
Gray County1 or 21 or 2
Greenwood County75
Harper County41 or 2
Harvey County33
Haskell County43
Jackson County1 or 21 or 2
Jefferson County66
Jewell County1 or 21 or 2
Johnson County3633
Kearny County55
Kingman County64
Kiowa County53
Labette County75
Leavenworth County94
Lincoln County44
Logan County33
Lyon County1010
Marion County44
Marshall County33
McPherson County97
Miami County1411
Mitchell County44
Montgomery County77
Morris County31 or 2
Morton County1 or 21 or 2
Nemaha County44
Neosho County44
Ness County1 or 21 or 2
Norton County1 or 21 or 2
Osage County55
Ottawa County44
Pawnee County33
Phillips County1 or 21 or 2
Pratt County1 or 21 or 2
Rawlins County1 or 21 or 2
Reno County1614
Republic County1 or 21 or 2
Rice County98
Riley County44
Rooks County1 or 21 or 2
Rush County1 or 21 or 2
Russell County44
Saline County1313
Scott County44
Sedgwick County7064
Seward County44
Shawnee County2827
Sherman County43
Smith County1 or 21 or 2
Stafford County1 or 21 or 2
Stevens County1 or 21 or 2
Sumner County44
Trego County31 or 2
Wabaunsee County1 or 21 or 2
Wallace County43
Washington County33
Wilson County33
Woodson County33
Wyandotte County3634

Note: a county with no fatal crash in 1978 is not in the table. A count of 1 or 2 is written "1 or 2".

Time of day and weekday

Table 3.Kansas: fatal crashes by time of day, 1978
Time of dayFatal crashesShare
Midnight to 6 a.m.10721.5%
6 a.m. to noon9519.1%
Noon to 6 p.m.13627.3%
6 p.m. to midnight16032.1%
Table 4.Kansas: fatal crashes by weekday, 1978
WeekdayFatal crashesShare
Sunday6012.0%
Monday5110.2%
Tuesday6212.4%
Wednesday6012.0%
Thursday5711.4%
Friday7815.7%
Saturday13026.1%

Note: the tables have the fatal crashes with a known hour or weekday.

Cite this page

Fatal Roads. Kansas fatal crashes in 1978. https://fatalroads.com/state/kansas/1978/. Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System, FARS 2024 annual file. Data to .

The address of this page does not change.

Source of the figures

Counts: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System, national file of 1978. This site reads the years before 2015 from one fixed copy. It does not track later revisions of these years. Residents: Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, vintage 2025. Data to .

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

Questions

Which file does the 1978 page use?

This site reads the years before 2015 from one fixed copy. It does not track later revisions of these years.

What part of the deaths in the United States in 1978 was in Kansas?

Kansas had 572 of the 50,331 deaths in the United States in 1978. That is 1.1 percent.

In how many counties of Kansas did FARS record a fatal crash in 1978?

FARS records one or more fatal crashes in 90 counties of Kansas in 1978.

How many fatal crashes in Kansas in 1978 had a driver recorded as drinking?

FARS records a driver as drinking in 153 of 498 fatal crashes in 1978.