Fatal RoadsSearch

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

Virginia fatal crashes in 1977

FARS records 1,118 deaths in 975 fatal crashes in Virginia in 1977.

In 1976 it records 1,000 deaths in 882 fatal crashes.

This site gives no rate for the years before 2000.

Deaths in Virginia rose by 11.8% from 1976 to 1977. In the United States they rose by 5.2%.

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

1977 beside 1976

Table 1.Virginia in 1977, in 1976 and the United States in 1977
FigureVirginia, 1977Virginia, 1976United States, 1977
Deaths1,1181,00047,878
Fatal crashes97588242,211
Deaths for each 100,000 residentsn/an/an/a
Fatal crashes with a driver recorded as drinkingn/a93n/a

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 1977

Table 2.Virginia: counties with a fatal crash in 1977, in name order
CountyDeathsFatal crashes
Accomack County99
Albemarle County98
Alexandria city88
Alleghany County44
Amelia County41 or 2
Amherst County76
Appomattox County54
Arlington County1313
Augusta County1514
Bath County1 or 21 or 2
Bedford County1110
Botetourt County77
Brunswick County75
Buchanan County1111
Buckingham County77
Campbell County1816
Caroline County1413
Carroll County88
Charlotte County86
Charlottesville city1 or 21 or 2
Chesapeake city2319
Chesterfield County3029
Clarke County96
Colonial Heights city1 or 21 or 2
Culpeper County65
Danville city55
Dickenson County1 or 21 or 2
Dinwiddie County2014
Essex County1 or 21 or 2
Fairfax city33
Fairfax County7162
Falls Church city1 or 21 or 2
Fauquier County1814
Floyd County1211
Fluvanna County44
Franklin County1010
Frederick County1616
Fredericksburg city1 or 21 or 2
Galax city1 or 21 or 2
Giles County43
Gloucester County55
Goochland County55
Grayson County55
Greene County53
Greensville County65
Halifax County1712
Hampton city1414
Hanover County1914
Harrisonburg city1 or 21 or 2
Henrico County2927
Henry County2218
Hopewell city1 or 21 or 2
Isle of Wight County158
James City County98
King George County33
King William County1 or 21 or 2
Lancaster County54
Lee County87
Loudoun County1512
Louisa County86
Lunenburg County1 or 21 or 2
Lynchburg city1010
Madison County44
Martinsville city66
Mecklenburg County109
Middlesex County33
Montgomery County1513
Nelson County1 or 21 or 2
New Kent County107
Newport News city1715
Norfolk city3028
Northampton County87
Northumberland County31 or 2
Nottoway County55
Orange County33
Page County66
Patrick County33
Petersburg city33
Pittsylvania County2121
Portsmouth city88
Powhatan County65
Prince Edward County99
Prince George County1611
Prince William County2726
Pulaski County1211
Radford city1 or 21 or 2
Rappahannock County1 or 21 or 2
Richmond city2321
Richmond County33
Roanoke city1615
Roanoke County44
Rockbridge County147
Rockingham County2421
Russell County54
Salem city1 or 21 or 2
Scott County1 or 21 or 2
Shenandoah County1211
Smyth County44
Southampton County1813
Spotsylvania County1312
Stafford County75
Staunton city1 or 21 or 2
Suffolk city1211
Surry County31 or 2
Sussex County97
Tazewell County129
Virginia Beach city3330
Washington County66
Westmoreland County1 or 21 or 2
Winchester city1 or 21 or 2
Wise County87
Wythe County1310
York County2017

Note: a county with no fatal crash in 1977 is not in the table. A count of 1 or 2 is written "1 or 2".

Time of day and weekday

Table 3.Virginia: fatal crashes by time of day, 1977
Time of dayFatal crashesShare
Midnight to 6 a.m.20521.0%
6 a.m. to noon14514.9%
Noon to 6 p.m.26427.1%
6 p.m. to midnight36037.0%
Table 4.Virginia: fatal crashes by weekday, 1977
WeekdayFatal crashesShare
Sunday15616.0%
Monday929.4%
Tuesday10310.6%
Wednesday12612.9%
Thursday12212.5%
Friday16016.4%
Saturday21622.2%

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

Cite this page

Fatal Roads. Virginia fatal crashes in 1977. https://fatalroads.com/state/virginia/1977/. 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 1977. 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 1977 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 1977 was in Virginia?

Virginia had 1,118 of the 47,878 deaths in the United States in 1977. That is 2.3 percent.

In how many counties of Virginia did FARS record a fatal crash in 1977?

FARS records one or more fatal crashes in 113 counties of Virginia in 1977.