Texas roads are well traveled by motorists throughout the urban and rural regions of The Lone Star State. We like the freedom of driving our cars. And as long as we drive safely and follow the rules of the road, we can enjoy these experiences even more. However, accidents do happen.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, nearly 561,000 motor vehicle crashes occurred in the state in 2019. Harris County – where Houston is located – accounted for the most with more than 20% of those total crashes at 113,525, followed by Dallas County with 55,346, and Bexar County — home of San Antonio – with 32,389. But where do car accidents often occur in Texas? A few different and surprising places.
Intersections, rural areas and close to home
In 2019, a car crash occurred in Texas every 56 seconds, a person was injured in a car accident every two minutes and a person was killed every 2 ½ hours. Accidents in Texas and throughout the country commonly occur:
- Close to home
- At intersections (A total of 731 people died in crashes in intersections or related to intersections in the 2019 in the state.)
- At stop signs
- At traffic lights
- On rural highways
- On two-lane roads
- In rush hour traffic
- In parking lots
Questions also arise whether rural or urban areas are more prone to car accidents. Obviously, urban areas have higher populations and account for more accidents. In the U.S. in 2018, roughly 19% of the country’s population lived in rural areas. However, 45% of all traffic fatalities occurred in rural areas throughout the nation.
In Texas, rural areas accounted for 42% of the state’s fatalities in 2018. But a more telling statistic shows that rural areas in Texas had a fatality rate of 1.98 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled compared with the 1.03 rate in the state’s urban areas.
Please drive safely in Texas. You do not want to be another statistic.