Car Crash Statistics in New York

New York is a unique state when it comes to car ownership. Almost 30% of homes in the state don’t have a car—more than double the number of the next highest state. This means that the almost 20 million people who live in New York own fewer than 5 million cars. That is an impressively low number.

But just because residents of New York have fewer vehicles than residents of all other states, that doesn’t mean there are no car accidents. According to car crash statistics in New York, there are still hundreds of thousands of accidents every year, resulting in tens of thousands of serious injuries and roughly 1,000 fatalities.

While 1,000 fatalities per year may sound awful, New York has one of the lowest rates of fatal car accidents per capita of any state in the country. This is a comforting fact if you regularly drive in New York.

If you have questions about car crashes in New York, speak to a car accident lawyer at Morgan & Morgan. We have been dealing with car accident cases for almost 40 years, and our attorneys have plenty of information at their fingertips. Contact us today to schedule a free case evaluation with a car accident lawyer.

Where to Find Car Accident Statistics for New York

If you are looking for car accident statistics for New York, several resources might serve your needs.

For historical data, the best option is the New York Department of Motor Vehicles website. It maintains a database of motor vehicle crash data from 1995 to 2014. These statistics are easy to access and publicly available.

Modern statistics are available at the New York State Traffic Safety Statistical Repository (TSSR). This is New York’s primary information system for accident data. Similar to the above database, this is publicly available on the internet.

Finally, you can visit the NYPD website if you are interested in the most up-to-date information for New York City. The NYPD maintains accident data for all car crashes that occur within the city. The information is published monthly and can be accessed by borough or citywide.

What the Statistics Say

For the most recent year that has been collated (2021), there were a little over 370,000 car accidents in New York state. Only a third of a percent of those accidents resulted in fatalities, and less than 30% resulted in injuries. That means the vast majority caused only property damage.

The majority of all accidents involved two cars or trucks. However, about 25,000 involved either motorcycles, pedestrians, or bicycles. Both the fatality and injury rates for those types of accidents were quite a bit higher than for other types of accidents.

A preliminary report has been released for 2022 and the statistics are similar. The total number of crashes in 2022 appears to be lower than in 2021 but only by a modest amount.

Crash Statistics in New York City

Surprisingly, the statistics for New York City are even better than those for the rest of the state. The city is home to roughly 40% of the population of the state. Despite this, there were only 7,000 accidents in January 2023, which is roughly 25% of accidents in the state.

These excellent numbers continue in the injury and death stats. Only a little over 1500 people were injured and only five died in car accidents. Again, those numbers are both well below 40% of the statewide values.

These statistics are probably surprising to most people, since large cities like New York City often have a reputation for traffic accidents. This reputation is highly inaccurate. You are quite a bit safer walking, riding a bike, or driving in New York City than you are in most other parts of the state.

Interesting Statistics From New York City Car Accidents

Most of the statistics from New York City car crashes are the kind of information that is interesting only to politicians, insurance adjusters, and car accident lawyers. But some of the data might interest the average person as well.

For example, of the thousands of vehicles involved in accidents within the city during January 2023, two of them were all-terrain vehicles and one was completely unknown. Presumably those all-terrain vehicles were driving through one of the parks, but it is fun to imagine that one or both were driving down Broadway.

Another area of statistics that the NYPD keeps is contributing factors in accidents that involve injuries or fatalities. And most of these are things you might expect. For example, over 2,000 accidents were due to distraction or inattention.

There are some surprises, though. The biggest is probably that only one accident was a result of texting. More accidents were caused by handheld cell phones (two) and unidentified electronic devices (also, two). Hopefully, this means that people in NYC are taking the danger of texting and driving seriously.

Another impressive statistic is that 41 crashes were a result of someone falling asleep at the wheel. And that number doesn’t include the 17 people who lost consciousness for some other reason.

If It Is So Safe, Why Do Car Accident Lawyers Even Work in New York?

Sadly, no state, no matter how safe, is free from car accidents. Don’t forget that roughly 1,000 people die in New York car accidents every year. That is 1,000 people too many, as far as the car accident lawyers at our law firm are concerned. We’d much rather be out of a job than see thousands of people get hurt or killed every year.

We continue to provide car accident services in New York because clients continue to need them. Every car accident is a chance for an insurance company to prioritize profits over people. And this means that if you are in a car accident, you could find yourself getting significantly less money than you deserve from an insurance company.

That is why we continue to practice car accident law in New York. We can’t lower the car accident statistics, but we can make sure that our clients who have been injured in a car crash don’t feel like a statistic.

Our priority when dealing with car accident cases is to help our clients recover as quickly as possible. This means we attempt to get them as much money as we can and reduce the stress of the car accident claim process.

If you’ve been hurt in a car crash, you want to focus on healing instead of having to fill out paperwork or hunt down financial records. We understand that and make the process as simple as we can.

Keeping Statistics Accurate

While there is never anything good about getting into an accident, you still want to become a part of the New York traffic statistics if you do. These statistics represent information that has been collected by New York police officers. After an accident, it is critical to contact the police.

When the police arrive at the scene of an accident, they create a police report. This report identifies who was involved in the accident and tries to recreate the crash as accurately as possible. This information is crucial for collecting compensation from an insurance company.

Even in the best of situations, the insurance company will use this information to determine fault and calculate what damages it is responsible for. In the worst situations, your car accident lawyer will need to use the police report as evidence in a trial to force an insurance company to pay fair compensation.

Regardless, if you don’t contact the police, they can’t create a report, and that will likely reduce the compensation you receive after an accident. Depending on the circumstances, it can even potentially prevent you from getting paid at all.