The news of car accidents today is the set of latest published crash figures for the United States, covering deaths, injuries, police-reported crashes and the pace of each. NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) publishes an early estimate for the most recent full year and a detailed overview for the year before. The quick facts below come from those two publications.
- Deaths in 2025: an estimated 36,640, a decrease of 6.7 percent from 39,254 in 2024 (NHTSA DOT HS 813 800).
- Death rate in 2025: 1.10 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, the second lowest rate on record behind 1.08 in 2014 (NHTSA DOT HS 813 800).
- Deaths per day: about 100 on an average day in 2025, computed as 36,640 divided by 365 days.
- Police-reported crashes in 2024: an estimated 6,180,241, or about 16,886 per day, computed as 6,180,241 divided by 366 days (NHTSA DOT HS 813 791).
- People injured in 2024: an estimated 2,422,195, or about 6,618 per day, computed as 2,422,195 divided by 366 days (NHTSA DOT HS 813 791).
- Trend: the fourth quarter of 2025 was the 15th consecutive quarterly decline in traffic deaths (NHTSA DOT HS 813 800).
Annual totals describe the year as a whole, and NHTSA does not publish a count for the current day. The Car Accident Statistics page lists the full tables behind each figure, and the Car Accidents Today in Texas page applies the same method to Texas.
How Many People are Injured in Car Accidents Today?
About 6,618 people are injured in United States car accidents on an average day, based on NHTSA's estimate of 2,422,195 people injured in 2024 (2,422,195 divided by 366 days). The average equals roughly 276 injured people per hour. Passenger vehicle occupants account for 1,908,301 of the injured, motorcyclists for 86,887, pedestrians for 71,635 and pedalcyclists for 52,887 (NHTSA DOT HS 813 791, Table 3).
NHTSA publishes time-of-day counts for fatal crashes but not for injuries. In the FARS 2024 file, 33.5 percent of fatal crashes with a known hour (12,077 of 36,044) happened between 6:00 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. The injury rate was 74 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2024, down from 75 in 2023, a change NHTSA describes as not statistically significant.
How Many People are Killed in Car Accidents Today?
About 100 people are killed in United States car accidents on an average day, based on NHTSA's early estimate of 36,640 deaths in 2025 (36,640 divided by 365 days). The average equals about 4 deaths per hour, or one death roughly every 14 minutes (525,600 minutes divided by 36,640 deaths). Monthly averages in 2025 ranged from about 87 deaths per day in January to about 114 per day in August (monthly counts from NHTSA DOT HS 813 800, Table 2, divided by the days in each month).
Time of day shapes the toll. In the FARS 2024 file, the hour from 8:00 p.m. to 8:59 p.m. recorded the most fatal crashes (2,195), and 20,971 of the 39,254 deaths in 2024 (53.4 percent) occurred at night, between 6:00 p.m. and 5:59 a.m. (NHTSA DOT HS 813 791).
