Fatal RoadsSearch

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

New Jersey fatal crashes in 1997

FARS records 775 deaths in 700 fatal crashes in New Jersey in 1997.

In 1996 it records 814 deaths in 754 fatal crashes.

This site gives no rate for the years before 2000.

Deaths in New Jersey fell by 4.8% from 1996 to 1997. In the United States they fell by 0.1%.

In 1997, a driver was recorded as drinking in 24.3% of fatal crashes in New Jersey and 30.1% 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

1997 beside 1996

Table 1.New Jersey in 1997, in 1996 and the United States in 1997
FigureNew Jersey, 1997New Jersey, 1996United States, 1997
Deaths77581442,013
Fatal crashes70075437,324
Deaths for each 100,000 residentsn/an/an/a
Fatal crashes with a driver recorded as drinking17016611,231

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

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 1997

Table 2.New Jersey: counties with a fatal crash in 1997, in name order
CountyDeathsFatal crashes
Atlantic County4844
Bergen County5953
Burlington County5348
Camden County4742
Cape May County2421
Cumberland County2927
Essex County7265
Gloucester County4839
Hudson County4542
Hunterdon County1413
Mercer County2322
Middlesex County5248
Monmouth County5552
Morris County2423
Ocean County5749
Passaic County2522
Salem County1616
Somerset County2321
Sussex County1311
Union County3130
Warren County1712

Note: a county with no fatal crash in 1997 is not in the table. A count of 1 or 2 is written "1 or 2".

Time of day and weekday

Table 3.New Jersey: fatal crashes by time of day, 1997
Time of dayFatal crashesShare
Midnight to 6 a.m.14220.3%
6 a.m. to noon13919.9%
Noon to 6 p.m.22532.2%
6 p.m. to midnight19327.6%
Table 4.New Jersey: fatal crashes by weekday, 1997
WeekdayFatal crashesShare
Sunday12217.4%
Monday10014.3%
Tuesday7110.1%
Wednesday10014.3%
Thursday9313.3%
Friday10414.9%
Saturday11015.7%

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

Cite this page

Fatal Roads. New Jersey fatal crashes in 1997. https://fatalroads.com/state/new-jersey/1997/. 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 1997. 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 1997 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 1997 was in New Jersey?

New Jersey had 775 of the 42,013 deaths in the United States in 1997. That is 1.8 percent.

In how many counties of New Jersey did FARS record a fatal crash in 1997?

FARS records one or more fatal crashes in 21 counties of New Jersey in 1997.

How many fatal crashes in New Jersey in 1997 had a driver recorded as drinking?

FARS records a driver as drinking in 170 of 700 fatal crashes in 1997.