Fatal RoadsSearch

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

West Virginia fatal crashes in 1976

FARS records 489 deaths in 425 fatal crashes in West Virginia in 1976.

In 1975 it records 461 deaths in 401 fatal crashes.

This site gives no rate for the years before 2000.

Deaths in West Virginia rose by 6.1% from 1975 to 1976. In the United States they rose by 2.2%.

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

1976 beside 1975

Table 1.West Virginia in 1976, in 1975 and the United States in 1976
FigureWest Virginia, 1976West Virginia, 1975United States, 1976
Deaths48946145,523
Fatal crashes42540139,747
Deaths for each 100,000 residentsn/an/an/a
Fatal crashes with a driver recorded as drinking17148,147

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 the alcohol data of the early years, especially 1975 and 1976, must be used with care.

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 1976

Note: a county with no fatal crash in 1976 is not in the table. A count of 1 or 2 is written "1 or 2".

Time of day and weekday

Table 3.West Virginia: fatal crashes by time of day, 1976
Time of dayFatal crashesShare
Midnight to 6 a.m.8119.9%
6 a.m. to noon5714.0%
Noon to 6 p.m.11528.3%
6 p.m. to midnight15437.8%
Table 4.West Virginia: fatal crashes by weekday, 1976
WeekdayFatal crashesShare
Sunday5613.2%
Monday4911.5%
Tuesday327.5%
Wednesday4911.5%
Thursday6114.4%
Friday8319.5%
Saturday9522.4%

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

Cite this page

Fatal Roads. West Virginia fatal crashes in 1976. https://fatalroads.com/state/west-virginia/1976/. 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 1976. 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 1976 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 1976 was in West Virginia?

West Virginia had 489 of the 45,523 deaths in the United States in 1976. That is 1.1 percent.

In how many counties of West Virginia did FARS record a fatal crash in 1976?

FARS records one or more fatal crashes in 54 counties of West Virginia in 1976.

How many fatal crashes in West Virginia in 1976 had a driver recorded as drinking?

FARS records a driver as drinking in 17 of 425 fatal crashes in 1976.