Utah Crash Facts 2021

A Year in Review

  • Total Crashes: 61,406
  • Total Injuries: 26,437
  • Total Fatalities: 332

Crash Frequency

  • A crash occurred every 8.5 minutes.
  • A person was injured in a crash every 20 minutes.
  • A person died in a crash every 26 hours.

Where Crashes Happened

Crash Rates by County

The top five counties with the highest crash rates per 100 million vehicle miles traveled were:

  • 1. Salt Lake
  • 2. Weber
  • 3. Cache
  • 4. Utah
  • 5. Davis

Urban vs. Rural Crashes

  • The crash rate in urban areas was 228.06 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.
  • The crash rate in rural areas was 77.79 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.
  • However, the fatal crash rate was higher in rural areas (1.17) compared to urban areas (0.75).

Crash Site & Conditions

  • A significant 45% of crashes occurred at an intersection.
  • The vast majority of crashes (83%) occurred on dry roads.

When Crashes Happened

Day, Time, and Month

  • Busiest Day: Friday saw the most crashes, with 10,587 incidents.
  • Peak Time of Day: The evening commute, between 3 PM and 6 PM, had the highest number of crashes.
  • Busiest Month: December had the most crashes for the year, with 6,587 incidents.

Why Crashes Happened

Top 5 Driver-Related Factors (All Crashes)

  1. Followed too Closely (21%)
  2. Failed to Yield Right-of-Way (20%)
  3. Failed to Keep in Proper Lane (13%)
  4. Speeding (8%)
  5. Unsafe Lane Change (5%)

Top 3 Driver-Related Factors (Fatal Crashes)

  1. Speeding (31%)
  2. Failed to Keep in Proper Lane (30%)
  3. Failed to Yield Right-of-Way (14%)

Unrestrained Occupants

Failure to wear a seatbelt had serious consequences:

  • There were 2,140 unrestrained occupants in crashes.