Fatal crash profile · State

Traffic deaths in California

Deaths, 2024: 3,876
Fatal crashes: 3,583
Population: 39.4M

In 2024, 3,876 people died in 3,583 fatal crashes in California, about 11 a day. That was 7.0% fewer than in 2023 (4,169) and the fewest since 2019. The death rate was 9.8 per 100,000 residents, compared with 11.5 in the United States. California had the 2nd most traffic deaths of the 51 states and DC and the 34th-highest death rate. Pedestrians accounted for 28% of deaths, and 29% of fatal crashes were speeding-related.

Deaths

Traffic deaths

9.8

deaths per 100,000 residents in 2024

About 85 percent of the rate in the United States: 11.5

-7%

change in deaths from 2023 to 2024

4,169 deaths in 2023, 3,876 in 2024

The United States: -4%

Traffic deaths by year, 1975–2024

Category	Deaths	Fatal crashes
1975	4,092	3,667
1976	4,395	3,895
1977	4,839	4,351
1978	5,310	4,724
1979	5,542	4,975
1980	5,496	4,930
1981	5,170	4,670
1982	4,615	4,119
1983	4,573	4,089
1984	5,020	4,517
1985	4,960	4,447
1986	5,253	4,683
1987	5,504	4,935
1988	5,392	4,875
1989	5,412	4,877
1990	5,192	4,685
1991	4,688	4,194
1992	4,192	3,722
1993	4,164	3,687
1994	4,232	3,787
1995	4,192	3,669
1996	3,989	3,576
1997	3,688	3,279
1998	3,494	3,112
1999	3,559	3,148
2000	3,753	3,348
2001	3,956	3,543
2002	4,088	3,654
2003	4,224	3,731
2004	4,120	3,727
2005	4,333	3,849
2006	4,240	3,839
2007	3,995	3,591
2008	3,434	3,145
2009	3,090	2,825
2010	2,720	2,504
2011	2,816	2,617
2012	2,966	2,733
2013	3,107	2,860
2014	3,102	2,859
2015	3,387	3,123
2016	3,837	3,540
2017	3,884	3,569
2018	3,798	3,485
2019	3,719	3,427
2020	3,980	3,673
2021	4,513	4,196
2022	4,539	4,218
2023	4,169	3,826
2024	3,876	3,583

People who died within 30 days of a crash. A fatal crash can kill more than one person.

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Deaths per 100,000 residents, 2000–2024

Category	Deaths per 100,000
2000	11.0
2001	11.5
2002	11.7
2003	12.0
2004	11.6
2005	12.1
2006	11.8
2007	11.0
2008	9.4
2009	8.4
2010	7.3
2011	7.5
2012	7.8
2013	8.1
2014	8.0
2015	8.7
2016	9.8
2017	9.9
2018	9.6
2019	9.4
2020	10.1
2021	11.5
2022	11.6
2023	10.6
2024	9.9

Uses Census population estimates, available from 2000.

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Profile by year: 2024 · 2023 · 2022 · 2021 · 2020

Road users

Who died

28%

of deaths were pedestrians

About 1.6 times the share in the United States: 18%

Who died in 2024

Category	Deaths
Vehicle occupants and others	2,101
Pedestrians	1,090
Motorcyclists	522
Cyclists	163

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Deaths by type, 2024
Type	Deaths	Share in California	Share in the US
Pedestrians	1,090	28%	18%
Motorcyclists	522	13%	16%
Cyclists	163	4%	3%
Alcohol-impaired driving crashes	1,311	34%	30%
Speeding-related crashes	1,139	29%	29%

Alcohol-impaired and speeding-related count everyone killed in those crashes, so a death can appear in more than one row.

Crash factors

Speeding, alcohol, night and weekend crashes

29%

of fatal crashes were speeding-related

About the same as the share in the United States: 28%

27%

of fatal crashes involved a drinking driver

About the same as the share in the United States: 25%

Crash factors in 2024

Category	California	United States
Speeding-related	26.6%	24.8%
Alcohol-involved	28.8%	28.1%
At night	62.0%	53.6%
At weekends	34.4%	32.6%

Share of fatal crashes. Alcohol-involved means a police-reported drinking driver.

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Timing

When crashes happen

62%

of fatal crashes happened at night

About 1.2 times the share in the United States: 54%

34%

of fatal crashes happened at weekends

About the same as the share in the United States: 33%

Fatal crashes by hour of day

Category	Fatal crashes
12am	945
1am	829
2am	891
3am	643
4am	696
5am	783
6am	661
7am	469
8am	417
9am	419
10am	446
11am	481
12pm	586
1pm	582
2pm	684
3pm	762
4pm	789
5pm	974
6pm	1,128
7pm	1,169
8pm	1,284
9pm	1,254
10pm	1,154
11pm	1,080

All crashes 2020–2024.

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Fatal crashes by day of week

Category	Fatal crashes
Sun	3,361
Mon	2,453
Tue	2,374
Wed	2,381
Thu	2,591
Fri	2,969
Sat	3,367

All crashes 2020–2024.

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Fatal crashes by month

Category	Fatal crashes
Jan	1,580
Feb	1,410
Mar	1,468
Apr	1,512
May	1,540
Jun	1,564
Jul	1,671
Aug	1,737
Sep	1,722
Oct	1,837
Nov	1,740
Dec	1,715

All crashes 2020–2024.

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Conditions

Weather and light

Weather at the time of the crash

Category	Fatal crashes
Clear	16,517
Cloudy	1,789
Rain	723
Fog, Smog, Smoke	192
Severe Crosswinds	59
Snow	19

All crashes 2020–2024. Crashes where conditions were not reported are left out.

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Light conditions at the time of the crash

Category	Fatal crashes
Daylight	7,084
Dark - Lighted	6,416
Dark - Not Lighted	4,983
Dusk	462
Dawn	377
Dark - Unknown Lighting	128

All crashes 2020–2024. Crashes where conditions were not reported are left out.

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Roads and vehicles

Where and what, 2020–2024

Roads with the most fatal crashes

I-5538
US-101395
SR-99364
I-15276
I-10247
I-80194
SR-1150
SR-91121
SR-4105
I-894

Road names as recorded in police reports.

Vehicles involved, by type

Category	Vehicles
Cars	12,921
SUVs	5,144
Pickup trucks	3,940
Motorcycles	3,016
Medium and heavy trucks	2,065
Other vehicles	1,324
Vans	927
Buses	71
Other light trucks	45

All crashes 2020–2024.

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Vehicles most often involved

Reflects how common a vehicle is as well as crash involvement; not a safety rating.

Crashes

Fatal crashes

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Fatal crashes in 2024. Crashes without reported coordinates are not shown.

Filter crashes

From To

Who died Time of day Day Weather Lighting Vehicle type involved Make involved

Alcohol-involved Speeding-related Distracted driver

Date	Location	Road	Deaths
Dec 31, 2024	Los Angeles, Los Angeles County	CENTURY BLVD	1
Dec 31, 2024	Santa Paula, Ventura County	E SANTA BARBARA ST	1
Dec 31, 2024	Visalia, Tulare County	W CAMERON AVE	1
Dec 31, 2024	Camarillo, Ventura County	US-101	1
Dec 31, 2024	San Diego, San Diego County	SR-94 RAMP	1
Dec 31, 2024	Richmond, Contra Costa County	I-80	1
Dec 30, 2024	Banning, Riverside County	RAMSEY ST	1
Dec 30, 2024	Clearlake, Lake County	LAKESHORE DR	1
Dec 30, 2024	Riverside County	RAINBOW ANYON RD	1
Dec 29, 2024	Walnut Creek, Contra Costa County	NEWELL AVE	1
Dec 29, 2024	San Bernardino, San Bernardino County	N WATERMAN AVE	1
Dec 29, 2024	Los Angeles, Los Angeles County	BROADWAY	1
Dec 29, 2024	Monrovia, Los Angeles County	I-210	1
Dec 29, 2024	Humboldt County	CR-CENTERVILLE RD	1
Dec 29, 2024	Buena Park, Orange County	SR-91	1
Dec 29, 2024	Sacramento County	CR-MARCONI AVE	1
Dec 29, 2024	San Bernardino County	NATIONAL TRAILS HWY	1
Dec 28, 2024	Los Angeles, Los Angeles County	NONE	1
Dec 28, 2024	San Jose, Santa Clara County	MCLAUGHLIN AVE	1
Dec 28, 2024	Los Angeles, Los Angeles County	VERMONT AVE	1
Dec 28, 2024	Sacramento County	FLORIN RD	1
Dec 28, 2024	San Bernardino County	I-215	1
Dec 28, 2024	San Diego, San Diego County	SR-15	1
Dec 28, 2024	Los Angeles County	SR-60	1
Dec 28, 2024	Riverside County	DILLON RD	1

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Nearby and related

Counties in California

Area	Deaths, 2024	Per 100,000
Alameda County	100	6.1
Alpine County	1	92.1
Amador County	7	16.7
Butte County	34	16.3
Calaveras County	13	28.0
Colusa County	8	36.3
Contra Costa County	66	5.6
Del Norte County	6	22.3
El Dorado County	17	8.8
Fresno County	169	16.3
Glenn County	8	28.2
Humboldt County	26	19.6
Imperial County	26	14.2
Inyo County	15	82.0
Kern County	194	21.0
Kings County	30	19.5
Lake County	25	36.8
Lassen County	3	10.5
Los Angeles County	778	8.0
Madera County	33	19.9
Marin County	11	4.3
Mariposa County	2	11.8
Mendocino County	14	15.7
Merced County	46	15.5
Modoc County	4	46.9
Mono County	6	47.3
Monterey County	45	10.4
Napa County	11	8.3
Nevada County	8	7.8
Orange County	199	6.3
Placer County	40	9.2
Plumas County	2	10.7
Riverside County	289	11.4
Sacramento County	156	9.7
San Benito County	11	15.9
San Bernardino County	350	15.8
San Diego County	303	9.2
San Francisco County	48	5.8
San Joaquin County	139	17.0
San Luis Obispo County	30	10.6
San Mateo County	30	4.1
Santa Barbara County	38	8.6
Santa Clara County	100	5.2
Santa Cruz County	16	6.1
Shasta County	33	18.2
Sierra County	1	32.0
Siskiyou County	12	28.2
Solano County	41	9.0
Sonoma County	29	6.0
Stanislaus County	88	15.8
Sutter County	20	20.2
Tehama County	13	20.1
Trinity County	6	38.2
Tulare County	72	14.9
Tuolumne County	11	20.3
Ventura County	58	7.0
Yolo County	21	9.4
Yuba County	14	16.0

Cities

Cities with at least 10 fatal crashes across the loaded years are listed.

Rankings

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Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2020–2024. A fatal crash is one in which at least one person died within 30 days. Population: US Census Bureau estimates.