Fatal RoadsSearch

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

Virginia fatal crashes in 1998

FARS records 935 deaths in 834 fatal crashes in Virginia in 1998.

In 1997 it records 984 deaths in 900 fatal crashes.

This site gives no rate for the years before 2000.

Deaths in Virginia fell by 5.0% from 1997 to 1998. In the United States they fell by 1.2%.

In 1998, a driver was recorded as drinking in 29.6% of fatal crashes in Virginia and 30.0% 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

1998 beside 1997

Table 1.Virginia in 1998, in 1997 and the United States in 1998
FigureVirginia, 1998Virginia, 1997United States, 1998
Deaths93598441,501
Fatal crashes83490037,107
Deaths for each 100,000 residentsn/an/an/a
Fatal crashes with a driver recorded as drinking24730811,136

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 1998

Table 2.Virginia: counties with a fatal crash in 1998, in name order
CountyDeathsFatal crashes
Accomack County1818
Albemarle County118
Alexandria city31 or 2
Alleghany County1 or 21 or 2
Amelia County54
Amherst County76
Appomattox County55
Arlington County33
Augusta County1918
Bath County1 or 21 or 2
Bedford County77
Bland County33
Botetourt County146
Bristol city1 or 21 or 2
Brunswick County77
Buchanan County53
Buckingham County1 or 21 or 2
Buena Vista city1 or 21 or 2
Campbell County66
Caroline County77
Carroll County88
Charles City County33
Charlotte County66
Charlottesville city31 or 2
Chesapeake city2622
Chesterfield County3024
Clarke County1 or 21 or 2
Culpeper County108
Cumberland County31 or 2
Danville city1110
Dickenson County1 or 21 or 2
Dinwiddie County86
Essex County1 or 21 or 2
Fairfax County4644
Fauquier County1815
Floyd County1 or 21 or 2
Fluvanna County1 or 21 or 2
Franklin County1919
Frederick County88
Galax city1 or 21 or 2
Giles County33
Gloucester County54
Goochland County65
Grayson County43
Greene County1 or 21 or 2
Greensville County66
Halifax County1514
Hampton city44
Hanover County2220
Harrisonburg city1 or 21 or 2
Henrico County2121
Henry County1817
Hopewell city1 or 21 or 2
Isle of Wight County1212
James City County77
King and Queen County1 or 21 or 2
King George County76
King William County1 or 21 or 2
Lancaster County33
Lee County76
Loudoun County2220
Louisa County66
Lunenburg County33
Lynchburg city88
Madison County1 or 21 or 2
Martinsville city1 or 21 or 2
Mathews County1 or 21 or 2
Mecklenburg County66
Middlesex County1 or 21 or 2
Montgomery County109
Nelson County55
New Kent County54
Newport News city1615
Norfolk city2020
Northampton County33
Northumberland County1 or 21 or 2
Nottoway County55
Orange County129
Page County1 or 21 or 2
Patrick County98
Petersburg city31 or 2
Pittsylvania County1512
Portsmouth city1210
Powhatan County31 or 2
Prince Edward County1 or 21 or 2
Prince George County77
Prince William County1914
Pulaski County119
Rappahannock County1 or 21 or 2
Richmond city2019
Richmond County76
Roanoke city77
Roanoke County88
Rockbridge County55
Rockingham County1210
Russell County88
Scott County117
Shenandoah County55
Smyth County44
Southampton County77
Spotsylvania County1813
Stafford County1715
Suffolk city2318
Surry County43
Sussex County99
Tazewell County106
Virginia Beach city2019
Warren County66
Washington County55
Westmoreland County1 or 21 or 2
Williamsburg city1 or 21 or 2
Wise County66
Wythe County1211
York County119

Note: a county with no fatal crash in 1998 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, 1998
Time of dayFatal crashesShare
Midnight to 6 a.m.14617.6%
6 a.m. to noon16319.6%
Noon to 6 p.m.26632.0%
6 p.m. to midnight25530.7%
Table 4.Virginia: fatal crashes by weekday, 1998
WeekdayFatal crashesShare
Sunday11313.5%
Monday11513.8%
Tuesday9211.0%
Wednesday10112.1%
Thursday12014.4%
Friday14917.9%
Saturday14417.3%

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

Cite this page

Fatal Roads. Virginia fatal crashes in 1998. https://fatalroads.com/state/virginia/1998/. 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 1998. 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 1998 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 1998 was in Virginia?

Virginia had 935 of the 41,501 deaths in the United States in 1998. That is 2.3 percent.

In how many counties of Virginia did FARS record a fatal crash in 1998?

FARS records one or more fatal crashes in 114 counties of Virginia in 1998.

How many fatal crashes in Virginia in 1998 had a driver recorded as drinking?

FARS records a driver as drinking in 247 of 834 fatal crashes in 1998.