Car Crash Statistics

Also see: Car Death Report and Car Injury Report

Since 1996, American car owners have reported 70,341 car crashes to the U.S. Department of Transportation for vehicles built by the 31 automakers that we track. The car crashes that we study in this article are results of car problems. Table 1 shows the most common car problems that caused the crashes since year 1996. Table 2 shows the number of car crashes reported each year due to these car problems. Table 3 shows the number of car crashes by production year.

Common causes of car crashes

Table 1 shows the most common car problems that caused car crashes. The number one cause of car crashes is failure of the air bags. The next two leading causes of car crashes are hydraulic service brakes and vehicle speed control, respectively.

Table 1. Common causes of car crashes

Car Problem Category	Number of Car Crashes
Air Bags	24,527
Hydraulic Service Brakes	8,969
Vehicle Speed Control	8,433
Power Train	4,240
Steering	4,005
Structure	2,616
Electrical System	2,320
Seat Belts	2,266
Engine And Engine Cooling	2,242
Suspension	1,953
Equipment	1,835
Tires	1,286
Seats	1,051
Wheels	893
Electronic Stability Control	599
Other Fuel System	548
Unknown Or Other	507
Exterior Lighting	478
Gasoline Fuel System	381
Visibility	361
Parking Brake	320
Air Service Brakes	243
Latches/locks/linkages	125
Traction Control System	78
Child Seat	34
Interior Lighting	16
Diesel Fuel System	8
Forward Collision Avoidance	3
Hybrid Propulsion System	3
Back Over Prevention	1

Total number of car crashes by year

Table 2 shows the number of crashes reported each year since 1996. 2014 had the most crashes reported (6,259 crashes) and 1996 had the least crashes with 660 crashes reported.

Table 2. Total Number of crashes reported each year since 1996

Calendar Year	Number of car Crashes
1996	660
1997	838
1998	1,179
1999	2,201
2000	2,822
2001	2,983
2002	2,923
2003	2,931
2004	3,473
2005	2,900
2006	2,388
2007	2,344
2008	2,482
2009	3,050
2010	4,149
2011	2,570
2012	3,300
2013	4,152
2014	6,259
2015	5,245
2016	4,577
2017	3,598
2018	564

Total number of car crashes by model year

Table 3 shows the number of crashes reported for vehicles manufactured from year 1996 to 2018. Cars made in 2000 had the most crashes with 4,828 crashes reported and cars produced in 2017 (current year is excluded) had the least crashes with 405 crashes reported.

Table 3. Total Number of crashes reported for vehicles built since 1996

Production Year	Number of Crashes
1996 vehicles	3,386
1997 vehicles	3,312
1998 vehicles	3,616
1999 vehicles	4,351
2000 vehicles	4,828
2001 vehicles	4,554
2002 vehicles	4,724
2003 vehicles	4,300
2004 vehicles	4,206
2005 vehicles	4,389
2006 vehicles	4,201
2007 vehicles	4,053
2008 vehicles	3,561
2009 vehicles	2,495
2010 vehicles	2,493
2011 vehicles	2,273
2012 vehicles	2,309
2013 vehicles	2,187
2014 vehicles	2,099
2015 vehicles	1,582
2016 vehicles	825
2017 vehicles	405
2018 vehicles	41

Also see: Car Death Report and Car Injury Report