Fatal RoadsSearch

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

New Mexico fatal crashes in 1979

FARS records 633 deaths in 555 fatal crashes in New Mexico in 1979.

In 1978 it records 669 deaths in 588 fatal crashes.

This site gives no rate for the years before 2000.

Deaths in New Mexico fell by 5.4% from 1978 to 1979. In the United States they rose by 1.5%.

In 1979, a driver was recorded as drinking in 36.8% of fatal crashes in New Mexico and 38.8% 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

1979 beside 1978

Table 1.New Mexico in 1979, in 1978 and the United States in 1979
FigureNew Mexico, 1979New Mexico, 1978United States, 1979
Deaths63366951,093
Fatal crashes55558845,223
Deaths for each 100,000 residentsn/an/an/a
Fatal crashes with a driver recorded as drinking20420317,532

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 1979

Table 2.New Mexico: counties with a fatal crash in 1979, in name order
CountyDeathsFatal crashes
Bernalillo County9991
Catron County54
Chaves County1615
Colfax County1 or 21 or 2
Curry County1412
De Baca County33
Doña Ana County3733
Eddy County1816
Grant County76
Guadalupe County77
Hidalgo County77
Lea County2121
Lincoln County96
Los Alamos County43
Luna County1615
McKinley County7057
Mora County33
Otero County2319
Quay County108
Rio Arriba County1512
Roosevelt County108
San Juan County6354
San Miguel County1211
Sandoval County2119
Santa Fe County3937
Sierra County96
Socorro County2016
Taos County1312
Torrance County1412
Valencia County4640

Note: a county with no fatal crash in 1979 is not in the table. A count of 1 or 2 is written "1 or 2".

Time of day and weekday

Table 3.New Mexico: fatal crashes by time of day, 1979
Time of dayFatal crashesShare
Midnight to 6 a.m.13223.8%
6 a.m. to noon8916.1%
Noon to 6 p.m.11420.6%
6 p.m. to midnight21939.5%
Table 4.New Mexico: fatal crashes by weekday, 1979
WeekdayFatal crashesShare
Sunday9917.8%
Monday6010.8%
Tuesday498.8%
Wednesday509.0%
Thursday6611.9%
Friday9116.4%
Saturday14025.2%

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

Cite this page

Fatal Roads. New Mexico fatal crashes in 1979. https://fatalroads.com/state/new-mexico/1979/. 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 1979. 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 1979 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 1979 was in New Mexico?

New Mexico had 633 of the 51,093 deaths in the United States in 1979. That is 1.2 percent.

In how many counties of New Mexico did FARS record a fatal crash in 1979?

FARS records one or more fatal crashes in 30 counties of New Mexico in 1979.

How many fatal crashes in New Mexico in 1979 had a driver recorded as drinking?

FARS records a driver as drinking in 204 of 555 fatal crashes in 1979.